Nobody Like Our God

As I read this passage, I think of moments as a parent when you’re trying to find the kind of discipline that truly reaches your child.

Every child is different, so discipline often reflects what you know their hearts are set on. Sometimes you take away what they love to help shape obedience.

Other times—though rare—you might even give them exactly what they want, but more of it than they really asked for.

Picture a child begging nonstop for candy, until one night the parent finally gives in and serves candy for dinner. The child thinks it’s the best night ever… until the stomachache comes, and they realize too much of what they crave isn’t what they imagined it would be.

And then there are times when a child is simply determined to resist—no consequence, no reasoning, no evidence matters at all. As a good parent, you still discipline, because you know obedience leads to life and wisdom later on. But their stubbornness only exposes what’s really going on in their heart. Sometimes discipline doesn’t soften them—it reveals them and the current state of their heart.

This is where we find Pharaoh and Egypt in the story. Although he isn’t a child of God, He is exactly where God said he would be.

Unlike us as parents—who learn our children’s hearts over time —God already knows Pharaoh’s heart and the state that it’s in, He knows how Pharaoh will respond and react.

So God patiently continues working out His purpose for His people.

Chapter 8:1–15 picks up seven days after the first plague. The land would still reek, the Nile stagnant and foul.

Moses continues to record these events so Israel and those who would read later that God displays His unmatched power, that He alone is worthy of worship, and His ability to accomplish His will despite human stubbornness.

Let Exodus remind us: there is no one like YHWH.

We begin where we left off…

Command, Warning, Consequence.

Exodus 8:1–7 ESV

1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. 2 But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your country with frogs. 3 The Nile shall swarm with frogs that shall come up into your house and into your bedroom and on your bed and into the houses of your servants and your people, and into your ovens and your kneading bowls. 4 The frogs shall come up on you and on your people and on all your servants.” ’ ” 5 And the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the canals and over the pools, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt!’ ” 6 So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. 7 But the magicians did the same by their secret arts and made frogs come up on the land of Egypt.

Command & Warning V. 1-5

We begin with the same patten that we have seen thus far as in verse 1 says the LORD tells Moses to actually go and deliver this message at his palace which is where later warnings will also take place for the 5th and 8th plagues.

There at the Palace is where the command is given…

“Let my people go, that they may serve me”

Immediately after the command, the warning is given,

“If you refuse… I will plague ALL YOUR COUNTRY with frogs.

Now… in comparison of what was to come, and to the understanding of Pharaoh (he doesn’t understand what is to come firstly)… this was only a trivial annoyance.

But, much like the child who thinks they can handle candy for dinner…

Pharaoh doesn’t fully understand the implications of what Moses is warning him of.

He is not fully thinking about the what it’s going be like having this many frogs fill the country…

Frogs will be in your house, your bed, your servants homes, your people’s homes, ovens, cooking ware, on you and on your servants.

THERE WOULD BE DISGUST.

A particular warning to Pharaoh was that this would make it to his palace!

This wasn’t like the Nile river turning into blood where the only thing that may have bothered him personally was his bathing in the Nile. He probably had servants fetching water for him digging alongside the Nile.

NO, THIS WOUD AFFECT HIM TO THE SAME DEGREE THAT IT WOULD AFFECT ANYBODY ELSE

But Pharaoh is most likely shut off to the possibility of this being an issue because of the fact that the Egyptian culture has up to this point adored frogs…

They would wear amulets in the shape of frogs.

There was a THIS LAW against killing frogs.

Frogs were considered to bE SACRED WITHIN THE LAND OF EGYPT.

The croaking of frogs in the river and the pools often signaled to the farmers that the gods who controlled the Nile’s flooding and receding had once again made the land fertile.

As you may remember from last week when God directly confronted this Egyptian Deity whose name was “Hapi”.

Well, here in the beginning of chapter 8, God confronts another one of Egypt’s deity’s called Heqet.

This is what the representation of the frogs would emulate.

She was the symbol of resurrection and fertility, and life. That which the Nile and the frogs also were a symbol of.

And so… what is at stake here… what Moses is trying to warn Pharaoh of… is if you do not let my people go… God will reveal just how FAKE Heqet REALLY is along with Hapi.

You think she represents all these things… but God is about to show you that He is the one who controls the frogs… they serve Him and not Heqet, and that they will become a symbol of stench and death TO you IF YOU do not humble yourself…

But this is ignored by Pharaoh…

Consequence V. 5-6

AND SO MOSES says these things to Pharaoh as God commands him to do.

Notice that Moses doesn’t share with us really any of the conversation that he has with Pharaoh…

Details of Moses encounter with Pharaoh have been deliberately LEFT OUT.

It’s almost as if Moses is telling the reader, “I won’t bother you with the details of the conversation I had with Pharaoh, You already know that he didn’t listen.”

• ⁃ What matters most here is Aaron’s obedience TO WHAT HE IS TOLD TO DO.

Aaron stretches out his hand as God commands him to and the warning that was given to Pharaoh then becomes reality.

FROGS COVER THE LAND OF EGYPT…

This animal they reVERRED so much is now overwhelmingly and annoyingly plentiful in the land.

AT this point Pharaoh has seen not once, but now twice that this GOD OF ABRAHAM, ISAAC AND JACOB does NOT BLUFF.

If God says He’s going to do something… He does it. This is something that Pharaoh needs to understand but also something that the Israelites who are reading this for the first time need to be reminded of before they cross over to the Jordan to begin their conquest of the land He has given to them.

This is a reality that they would have already heard through oral tradition of their forefathers and the stories of what God did in their lives.

This is something that God has already began showing them as His promise in Ex. 6 to redeem THEM, deliver THEM and be there God.

Moses also writes in Numbers A BIT AFTER THE WRITING OF EXODUS

Numbers 23:19 ESV

19 God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?

This is a lesson that the Israelites need to read and hear over and over again.

Pharaoh finds this out first hand.

GOD DOES NOT BLUFF…

WE THEN SEE SOME MAGICIANS TRY THEIR BEST TO COPY WHAT GOD HAS DONE… NOTICE THAT THEY DO NOT HAVE THE POWER TO DO AWAY WITH THE FROGS.

The magicians are able to replicate the frogs to a small level BECAUSE They’re power is very limited to slight of hand deception.

One commentator notes that when frogs are everywhere already, it is no big feat to gather some together in a box or other container and then produce them at will through trickery.

This though is apparently isn’t enough to convince the Pharaoh who does not want to believe already that Moses and Aaron have been sent by the one true God. 

God’s power cannot be matched by other man made needy gods.

God’s power can not be copied.

God’s power is in no way limited as we will continue to see throughout the Exodus story.

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY for Pharaoh… GOD’S POWER CANNOT BE IGNORED.

The Egyptians viewed frogs as sacred, and so God uses them to show His power to Pharaoh—who still wouldn’t openly admit that there is no one like our YHWH.

There is no one like the LORD our God (God’s Sovereignty)

Exodus 8:8–11 ESV

8 Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, “Plead with the Lord to take away the frogs from me and from my people, and I will let the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.” 9 Moses said to Pharaoh, “Be pleased to command me when I am to plead for you and for your servants and for your people, that the frogs be cut off from you and your houses and be left only in the Nile.” 10 And he said, “Tomorrow.” Moses said, “Be it as you say, so that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God. 11 The frogs shall go away from you and your houses and your servants and your people. They shall be left only in the Nile.”

The realization that they cannot handle this many frogs and the annoyance of the creatures have finally reached a tipping point.

We see somewhat of a fake repentance from Pharaoh as he comes to Moses to plead for mercy.

If anything… this plead for Moses to pray to God is Him acknowledging that he knew by this time that YHWH existed and could control parts of nature that the Egyptians had previously thought were controlled by their gods.

Or it’s even a superstition… many desperate people have called upon a minister with no intention to really call upon God theirselves…

SPURGEON: “There is a measure of faith which goes to increase a man’s condemnation, since he ought to know that if what he believes is true, then the proper thing is to pray himself. It would have been a wonderfully good sign if Pharaoh had said, ‘Join with me, O Moses and Aaron, while I pray unto Jehovah that he may take the frogs from me.’ But, no, he had only a condemning faith, which contented itself with other men’s prayers.

What we see here from Pharaoh is an understanding that YHWH can heal the land… but a refusal to humble his status before Him.

Moses replies by complete confidence, to allow Pharaoh to have the choice as to when he is to pray for the frogs to be cut off from the land.

This reminds me much of the story of Elijah in 1 Kings 18 where Elijah challenges the 450 Prophets of Baal.

And just as Elijah had confidence that His God would back him up…this was a FULL CONFIDENCE IN YHWH TO ANSWER HIS PRAYER.

One commentator said that THIS IS AN APOLOGETICALLY BRILLIANT MOVE.

if the king could say when the frogs would go away, he would personally know that the timing was not due to the simple consequences of natural processes or by their many gods they they worshiped, but that it was even more evidence of the sovereignty of the God of Israel.

The frogs will go away from your homes and your people and only be left in the Nile.

And when this happens… you will have no choice… at least in your mind to know that YHWH is the only God.

***Moses has said the same thing in 7:14 and will say the same thing again in 8:22, and in 9:14…

God is making explicitly clear to Pharaoh, to the people of Israel… and to the readers of this book that HE ALONE IS GOD.

That HE ALONE IS TO BE WORSHIPED

THERE IS NONE BESIDE HIM.

THAT is SUPREME OVER ALL

AND YET… in the midst of mercy and grace… Pharaoh upholds his hard heart and refuses to acknowledge the obvious.

Hardness Upheld In The Midst of Mercy & Grace.

Exodus 8:12–15 ESV

12 So Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried to the Lord about the frogs, as he had agreed with Pharaoh. 13 And the Lord did according to the word of Moses. The frogs died out in the houses, the courtyards, and the fields. 14 And they gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank. 15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

Pharaoh’s response of tomorrow leads Moses to wait until morning to begin his prayer for Pharaoh and the land of Egypt. A few things come into view here…

Some may wonder why Pharaoh asked for this prayer to begin tomorrow? There may be a few possible answers here… 1) Pharaoh may have kicked the can down the road in hopes of something else to happen between now tomorrow. The frogs may clear out by then so that he didn’t have to admit it was God. 2) Pharaoh may have assumed in his understanding of intercessory prayer that it was going to take a day for this prayer.

Either way… the next day scripture says that Moses CRIED OUT TO GOD ON PHARAOH’s BHELAF…

“CRIED” here is this Hebrew word that literally means to CRY OUT with this loud, lamental cry with extreme emotion for help.

WHAT A GREAT PICTURE THIS IS EARLY ON IN THE OT OF A MAN OF GOD NOT JUST PRAYING BUT CRYING OUT WITH GREAT EMOTION ON BEHALF OF HIS ENEMY FOR THE GRACE AND MERCY OF GOD TO BE SHOWN TO HIM (Matthew 5:44; Luke 6:28)

AND GOD DOES ACCORDING TO WHAT MOSES PRAYS, but not necessarily the way that most would have wanted.

The frogs died in the homes, the courtyards, and the fields,.

God allows their to be a brief mercy and grace on the land and their King for a short time.

BUT ALONG WITH THE STAGNANT WATER OF THE NILE, NOW YOU HAVE HEAPS OF FROGS SPREAD OUT ACROSS THE LAND… THIS BRINGS ALONG WITH IT ANOTHER LAYER OF ANNOYANCE TO THE LAND… IN THE STENCH THAT FOLLOWED

which can be said is another consequence of their Pharaoh’s sin…

Even though God’s grace and mercy may be bestowed upon people here in this world… there are still consequences of that sin that God allows to be left behind…

What’s important though in that instant is for there to be a repentance from that person in the wake of the continued consequence…

The continued consequence is an evidence of God’s impeding judgment and grace… and so, either a person will relinquish their perceived control and repent, or they will take the route that Pharaoh takes…

The stench may have faded, or it may have not, we don’t know… but either way

Pharaoh’s permission for the Israelites to go and worship their God in the desert is taken back.

WHEN THERE WAS RELIEF at least from the frogs… scripture says that he literally made his heart heavier by not listening to Moses and Aaron… AS THE LORD HAD SAID WOULD HAPPEN…

SO WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATION HERE>>>>

GOSPEL IMPLICATIONS…

PHARAOH’S REACTIONS… Reveals the heart of man.

This plague was the point at which Pharaoh should have been able to admit that there is a true, powerful God who is behind this request that Moses and Aaron are making.

His refusal to believe is a look into the heart of all people who though they are confronted with the reason of biblical truth, they are confronted with the work of God in their lives and with the sight of what He has done in other peoples lives… nevertheless, they still refuse to believe in the obvious.

JESUS TELLS A STORY OF ABRAHAM TELLING THE RICH MAN WHO IS IN ANGUISH IN HADES YEARNING FOR HIS BROTHERS TO BE WARNED…

Luke 16:31 ESV

31 ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’ ”

Romans 1:18–19 ESV

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

People will see that

GODS POWER CANNOT BE MATCHED

Therefore they will know that

GOD IS THE ONLY ONE WORTHY OF WORSHIP

And even when God’s people go to and intercede on their behalf for God to show them mercy AND GOD DOES…

THERE WILL BE TIMES WHEN THEY STILL WILL MAKE THEIR OWN HEARTS HEAVY.

THEY WILL STILL REFUSE THE OFFER OF THE LIVING GOD…

We should not take this to be an attack on us… it is in fact an attack on the living God.

HISTORY TELLS US THAT: People rarely disbelieve because they lack evidence.

Most disbelief because accepting God’s truth means giving up their throne.

Pharaoh didn’t reject Moses because he didn’t understand,

he rejected Moses because he wanted to stay Pharaoh.

And the same goes for the natural heart of man…

The heart of man does not naturally want to give up it’s position as self made king…

WHICH IS WHY WE SHOULDN’T TAKE THE REJECTION OF GOD PERSONALLY.

THIS IS NO WAY ALLOWS THE PEOPLE OF GOD TO THROW UP OUR HANDS AND GIVE UP…

APPLICATION…

The people of God still acknowledge that’s God’s power cannot be matched,

we continue to know that He alone is worthy of worship and all praise,

and we continue to intercede on behalf of those outside of God’s children for them to come to a realization of their fallenness and repent.

We also praise God for His ability to STILL BRING ABOUT HIS PURPOSE AND PLAN EVEN IN THE MIDST OF MAN’S STUBBORN, HEAVY HEART.

WE CONTINUE TO GAURD AGAINST DEVELOPING STUBBORN HEARTS OURSELVES.

We acknowledge that God’s Spirit is the one that changes the heart. (Not us)

It is God who initiates the heart changing process.

He is the one who take the initiative in giving a new heart.

And we continue as God’s people to be obedient SO THAT OTHER MAY KNOW THAT THERE IS NOBODY LIKE YHWH and that He does not bluff… IN HIS SOVEREIGNTY, if He said He will will do it, then He will bring it to completion…

WE CAN REST IN THE REALITY THAT GOD’S PLAN WILL COME TO PASS AS WE ACTIVELY PARTAKE IN HIS WORK.

God showed them these truths through the Exodus, He would also remind them of these truths during their exile, and it’s something we can be encouraged by as well.

Ezekiel 36:22–28 ESV

22 “Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. 23 And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. 24 I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. 28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.