And the scribes did so with their sorceries, to bring forth gnats; but they could not. And the gnats were on man and on beast.
The magicians of Egypt had matched Moses and Aaron step for step. This time their secret arts produced nothing, and their failure shows where their power ran out and what only God can do. (Older translations call these creatures "lice"; the ESV says "gnats," and the quotes below use the older word.)
The plague came out of the dust of the ground. That is where the copying broke down.
Out of the dead dust the living lice had come. The magicians could not copy it. Only God can bring life out of death. They could only confess, "This is the finger of God," and leave the contest. From this point we hear of no more attempts to belittle the acts of God by satanic power.
This plague touched people and animals directly, and the magicians had nothing already there to copy.
The lice did not stay on the ground. Like dust, they settled on people and animals. This was a personal contamination that would be almost unbearable. They had before brought up frogs, but the frogs were already there to bring up. Now that dust turned into lice, they saw that this meant bringing life out of a lifeless source. They could not do this, even with the lowest form of life. Yet Pharaoh hardened his heart in blindness, as so many do today, though God gives them clear testimony to the gospel of His Son.
The magicians never argued with Moses. They copied him, and the New Testament names them and treats that copying as a pattern.
The main ones are named in the New Testament. We read, "Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth." (2 Tim. 3:8.) That reference matters, because it shows the magicians were acting on one of Satan's own principles. What was its special character? In one word, IMITATION... If he can win by opposing the truth openly, he will not hide. But if that door is shut, he will transform himself into an angel of light.
The words "they could not" mark a line their arts never cross. One writer puts that line between changing what already exists and creating.
They cannot go beyond nature or deception. Ask them to create a louse, and Satan's instruments come to a stop (Exodus 8:16-18). He can use natural forces, if God allows it. God alone can create, or by His own will produce what carries out His purpose. He controls nature as its Master and does what He pleases. Satan works by a lesser power, inside the created world. He cannot go past changing it, and he cannot even do that whenever he wants.
God let them get as far as they did, and He fixed where they would stop.
God allowed them to keep pace with every step Moses took, until the simplest fact of all showed that their power had reached its end, and they could go no further. They could no more get life-giving power than Simon Magus could buy the power of the Holy Spirit.
Commentators differ on how much the magicians admitted. One writer reads their confession as a move to protect themselves, not to give God glory.
The very soil of Egypt was now turned into a curse. God now held back the demonic powers of imitation, and the wicked magicians had to confess, not for God's glory, but for their own protection, "this is the finger of God."
Another writer notes that they called on their own gods first, and that they owned a power greater than those gods.
Until now the magicians had stood against Moses with success by copying him. So they called on their gods, lifted up their rods, and struck the dust. But Seb, the earth god, could not help them — Seb, who carried on him the sign of life-giving, the bird that lays the egg. Confusion covered them, and their folly was plain to everyone. "This is the finger of a god," they said. That is, of some being greater than the gods they had turned to; they admitted a power above their own.
Their defeat was not the end of it. The plagues went on, and they were caught in them.
The folly of Jannes and Jambres was plain to everyone. They not only failed to copy what Moses and Aaron did next; they were caught in God's judgments themselves. This is a solemn point. In the same way, the folly of everyone who has only the outward form will be shown up. They will be unable to copy the full and proper effects of divine life and power, and they will come under the judgments that follow from rejecting the truth they have resisted.
- Imitation. The magicians never denied Moses openly; they copied him. That copying is the method Scripture points back to when it names Jannes and Jambres.
- Limit. Satan can change what already exists, and only as far as God allows. He cannot create. Dust turned into living creatures drew the line there.
- Life. The frogs were already alive and waiting to be brought up; the lice came out of lifeless dust. Only God brings life out of death — and the smallest creature was enough to prove it.
- Confession. They said "the finger of God" — read by one writer as self-protection, by another as admitting a power above their own gods.
- Exposure. Their folly became plain to everyone, and they ended up under the very judgments they had tried to mimic. A form without the power always runs out of road.
Then the scribes said to Pharaoh, This is the finger of God! But Pharaoh's heart was stubborn, and he hearkened not to them, as Jehovah had said.
Three plagues in, Egypt's magicians have matched Moses and Aaron sign for sign, even bringing up frogs. Then the dust turns to lice, their arts fail, and Pharaoh's own advisers name the power in front of them.
Their earlier trick with frogs used creatures that were already there. This plague asked for something else, and L. M. Grant marks the line:
The magicians tried to copy this with their spells, but they could not. They had to admit that "this is the finger of God" (v. 19). They had brought up frogs before, but the frogs were already there to bring up. Now, when the dust turned into lice, they saw that this brought life out of a lifeless source. They could not do that, even with the lowest form of life.
Some explain this plague away as an ordinary Egyptian pest problem at a convenient moment. William Kelly answers that such a person believes less than Pharaoh's own magicians did:
The sceptic counts at least the first of these "a natural phenomenon of the country." For him the wonder is that Aaron started it, and that the Israelites were spared. So he believes less than the magicians, who said to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God" — not just a mix of unusual circumstances with a natural event.
After this admission the magicians stop rivalling Moses. Edward Dennett traces what happened to them next:
Three times these instruments of Satan "withstood" Moses. But the plague of lice raised the question of producing life from the dust of the earth. Here the magicians were powerless, and had to confess that it was "the finger of God." Life belongs to God; He alone is its source. So Satan's efforts are defeated here, and we read of no further attempt by his servants to block the force of the divine signs. In the next chapter we find that they "could not stand before Moses because of the boils." (Ex. 9:11) They themselves have fallen under the punishing hand of God.
Scripture later names two of these men, Jannes and Jambres, as the pattern for opposition to the truth. Their method was not contradiction:
The magicians of Egypt, who opposed Moses, show the character and methods of these opposers. Jannes and Jambres tried to resist the testimony of God, not by denying the truth, but by copying it. They tried to show that their power was as great as the power of God, and that they could match the results God produced by His word through Moses. They openly admitted that their power came from another source.
That method always runs out. Mackintosh presses the same warning on anyone who holds only the outward form:
The folly of Jannes and Jambres was clear to everyone. The folly of all who have only the outward form will be exposed in the same way. They will not only be quite unable to copy the full and proper effects of divine life and power. They will themselves come under the judgements that follow from rejecting the truth they have resisted.
The same phrase returns in the Gospels. Accused of casting out demons by Satan's power, Jesus answered, "But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you" (Luke 11:20). Kelly presses what that proves:
When the Lord was here below and showed His power over Satan, it was the kingdom of God. It could be called that because the King — the power of God — was there. So here, by casting out demons by the power of God, He proved that the kingdom of God had come. What better proof could anyone ask for? Man was completely unable to do such a work... But in the Lord's case it was not occasional, exceptional, or partial. It was always the same, and it covered every case.
The verse ends with a hardened heart. Kelly reads Pharaoh as the standing example of how that happens. Man refuses first; God's judicial act comes after:
He knows it is God. He is aware that he is doing wrong in refusing Him. Yet he still refuses, because he does not like God and dare not trust Him, since God's word interferes with everything he likes. So man gives himself up to unbelief. Then God may, at that time or later, and in His own wisdom, seal a person up in a judicial hardness. That is a distinct positive act on God's part... God hardens because man refuses His word.
- Copy — Satan's instruments opposed Moses by imitation, not denial. They matched him sign for sign three times.
- Life — the copying stopped when dust became living creatures. Only God is the source of life, and its lowest form beat them.
- Confess — the enemy's own experts named the power: the finger of God, not a lucky natural event.
- Collapse — they never opposed Moses again. By the next plague they were under judgment themselves, and every imitation of divine power ends there.
- Choose — the same finger of God later cast out demons and brought the kingdom near. Pharaoh refused clear proof, and God may seal such a refusing heart in its own hardness.