Exodus 8:1-4. 1Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go back to Pharaoh and announce to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so they can worship me. 2If you refuse to let them go, I will send a plague of frogs across your entire land. 3The Nile River will swarm with frogs. They will come up out of the river and into your palace, even into your bedroom and onto your bed! They will enter the houses of your officials and your people. They will even jump into your ovens and your kneading bowls. 4Frogs will jump on you, your people, and all your officials.’”
You probably know that the Nile River runs through Egypt. When the Nile River overflows it not only waters the land of Egypt, it creates a marshland that frogs and toads love. There are several kinds of frogs in Egypt. One of the most common is the Nile ridged frog, also called the Nile grass frog and the Nile rocket frog. The Nile ridged frog is a small frog that has a long snout and a stripe down its back. It’s also a very slimy frog. It can produce a foamy substance through its skin when its scared or nervous.
Years after Abraham died, his descendants, the Hebrews (or Israelites), found themselves as slaves in Egypt. So God raised up Moses to lead them to freedom. But the wicked king, Pharaoh, refused to set the Hebrews free. Do you remember what God did in order to change Pharaoh’s mind? He sent ten plagues, ten punishments, to change Pharaoh’s mind. The second plague was, you guessed it, frogs! Millions of frogs. Frogs in the bedroom. Frogs in the kitchen. Frogs in the oven. Everywhere you went…frogs. Imagine every step you take the sound of those slimy Nile ridge frogs squishing under your feet. Squish. Squish. Ew, gross.
But why frogs? Why did God send millions of frogs into the homes of the Egyptians? Was it because there was already so many of them living in the river? Or was it simply because they are so slimy and squishy? Maybe. But more likely it is because the Egyptians worshiped frogs. They worshiped a goddess (a girl god) that had a woman’s body and a frog’s head. Her name was Heket.
You see God was mad that Pharaoh and the Egyptians made his people the Hebrews into slaves, but he was also mad that they refused to worship him. Instead they worshiped a frog goddess. So God had to prove that he was way more powerful than their frog queen, Heket. God isn’t a frog; he controls all the frogs. God isn’t any animal; he controls all the animals.
In Exodus, God warned that frogs would come to reveal how powerful he is and how much he loves us and wants to rescue us. God punished Pharaoh with frogs to change Pharaoh’s mind about God. God wanted Pharaoh to worship him and he wanted Pharaoh to set his people free.
In the same way, God warned us in the Bible that he would come to us, not as a frog but as a person, to punish evil and to set his people free. That person was Jesus. When Jesus came at Christmastime, he came to do what the frogs could not, stop evil forever and set us free from our sin. When Jesus died on the cross, he made it so that anyone who trusts in him can be set free, not from Pharaoh, but from something much worse – sin. The sin of worshiping anything other than God himself.
Questions: Why do you think God wants us to worship only him, not frogs or anything else? Would you rather have Jesus come into your house and take over, or frogs? Why?
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