A daily, 32-day Lenten Devotional Series by Rev. Dave Brown
The Egyptians loved their bugs, admired their hard work. Their myths included the notion that the beetles rolled the sun into a ball and hid it from them in the evening only to roll it back in the morning. They made jewelry in the shape of beetles. These were called scarabs.
When Moses awoke one morning and met Pharaoh at the Nile River, he presented the LORD’s demand along with a consequence for refusing to comply. “Let my people go that they may serve me. Or else, if you will not let my people go, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants…but on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people dwell so that no swarms of flies shall be there.
Besides humiliating the Egyptians for worshiping “sacred bugs,” this plague introduced the distinction between God’s people and God’s enemies. This would reveal to Egypt “that I am the LORD in the midst of the earth.” Ineffective bargaining from Pharaoh commenced. Moses stood his ground. Pharaoh asked Moses: “Plead for me!” But Pharaoh had no intention to fulfill the LORD’s demand. As soon as the plague of flies was removed, Pharaoh hardened his heart and did not let the people go.
Sacred cows are mostly identified with Hindus, but in a very real sense the Egyptians worshiped cows. The bull was the god of fertility, the embodiment of the gods. Female cows represented love and beauty, motherhood and fertility. In reality, there’s no such thing as a sacred cow! Ryken summarizes the results of this plague: “God was proving himself to the Egyptians on their own terms, exposing the cult of the cow as a false religion.” Ryken:263)
Within a short time, and without any notice, Moses was directed to take handfuls of soot from the kiln and throw it into the air in the sight of Pharaoh. It was a form of divine retribution. Egypt had made the Israelites make bricks and dry them in the sun, or in the kilns. Surely, they had incurred serious skin diseases by laboring in the heat of the sun and the kiln. Their diseases might have resembled black lung disease suffered by coal miners, or skin cancer from exposure to asbestos, lead or other toxic substances.
When the Egyptians were afflicted with the airborne soot particles from the kiln, they broke out in boils. This was a heightened judgment from the hand of God. For the first time, the plagues attacked and endangered humans directly. With this plague, three consequences appeared. The Lord differentiated between his people and Pharaoh’s people, The medics and magicians of Egypt proved to be ineffective healers, and Pharaoh’s hardened heart was finally hardened by God to the point of no return.
While we have already addressed the issue of the hardness of heart of Pharaoh, it is worthwhile to return to it with another warning. In Psalm 95:7-11 the Psalmist exhorts God’s people to avoid the hardening of their hearts as did those who made it out of Egypt, only to rebel in the wilderness. “Today, if you hear my voice, do not harden your hearts as at Meribah…when your fathers put me to the test.” The consequence of the hardened heart is judgment. As the Lord said: “They shall never enter my rest.”
Reflections: God’s rest comes from believing in the living God and his living and active word and then holding our original confidence in the good news firm to the end. (See Hebrews 3:12-4:12)