And Jehovah said to Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh -- behold, he will go out to the water -- and say to him, Thus saith Jehovah, Let my people go, that they may serve me.
God sends Moses back to Pharaoh a fourth time, and He fixes both the hour and the place: early morning, at the water's edge, with the same demand as before. Three questions follow — why the river, why the demand is always for service, and what the swarms were.
Pharaoh was already on his way to the Nile that morning. Where he was going, and why, gives the meeting its point.
God tells Moses to put His demand to Pharaoh again: the people, whom He claimed as His own, must go free. Once more Moses is to meet the king as he goes out to the river early in the morning. Those who have studied the records of ancient Egypt tell us that the Egyptians worshipped the Nile as representing one of the chief gods of that land of idols. Remember, too, that when the river was struck under the first plague, Pharaoh was going the same way in the morning. It gives us the impression that he was going out to worship the Nile-god, and just at that moment his god was struck.
This morning meeting is not a one-off. The plagues come in three series, and each series opens the same way.
The Lord opened each of the three series of plagues by commanding Moses to meet Pharaoh "in the morning," at the start of a day. Moses and Aaron opened the second plague of each series by visiting Pharaoh, while the third came without warning. An ordered plan governs each series.
The demand is never just about release. It always adds a reason: the people go so they can serve God. That reason explains why worship inside Egypt was never an option.
The Exodus is the separation of the people of God from the world. One feature in the scene struck me: Israel was to go out of Egypt to serve the Lord, or hold a feast to Him. They could not serve Him or offer sacrifice to Him in the land of their slavery, in front of that people. Their religious service was of such a kind that Egypt would not tolerate it. It cut right across everything the Egyptians thought, so they would persecute and destroy them if they saw it. They must therefore go out.
Commentators differ on which creature the word means. Older English Bibles printed "of flies" in italics to show that the translators had supplied it.
At the river, God threatens Pharaoh with the fourth plague. We notice that the text calls it "swarms" seven times. Our translators added the words "of flies" in italics, since the word in the original is plainly an Egyptian one and not Hebrew, and no one knows its exact meaning. The Septuagint uses a Greek word meaning "dog-flies." Other authorities believe it really means "beetles." If so, that would again bring in the thought of the gods of Egypt, for the Egyptians treated the beetle as sacred.
Whatever the insect, the warning spelled out how total the invasion would be.
If the king would not obey the fresh summons, swarms of flies would appear. They would settle on Pharaoh, on his servants, on his people. His house and the houses of the Egyptians would be full of them, and swarms would cover the very ground. Wherever anyone set a foot down, it would crush some of the swarm.
The plagues are not random blows. Each one belongs to a quarrel between God and the man who held His people.
Their general purpose is clear if we remember the character of the controversy which God had with Pharaoh. He dealt with Pharaoh as the oppressor of His people, and as a picture of the god of this world. So His conflict was with Pharaoh and with everything Pharaoh trusted in. We therefore read that He executed judgment on the gods of Egypt. It was the brilliant display of God's victorious power in the stronghold of Satan.
Read as a picture, this plague says something about the things the world prizes.
The plague of flies is like those before it, and shows how all that the world values, if cut off from God, will in the end turn into plagues.
- Morning — God sets the hour and the place. Moses meets Pharaoh on the way to the river, so the king meets the true God at the very spot where he goes to meet his own.
- Message — The demand comes back unchanged. God claims Israel as His own people, not as Pharaoh's property.
- Motive — Release is never the whole point. They go out to serve the Lord and hold a feast to Him, a service Egypt would never allow on its soil.
- Menace — Refuse the summons, and the swarms come: on Pharaoh, on his servants, into the houses, over the ground, so thick that every footstep crushes them.
- Meaning — God's quarrel is with the oppressor and all he trusts in. He judges the gods of Egypt, and what the world prizes turns into a plague once God is left out.
For, if thou do not let my people go, behold, I will send dog-flies upon thee, and upon thy bondmen, and upon thy people, and into thy houses; and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of dog-flies, and also the ground on which they are.
Three plagues have already struck Egypt, and Pharaoh still holds Israel. So God sends Moses with one more warning: refuse again, and swarms will fill Egypt's houses and cover the ground.
God does not strike without notice. He names the threat, its reach, and the one people He will spare.
This time Moses is to warn Pharaoh again. He repeats God's earlier command to let His people go… The word "swarms" is rightly translated "a mixture," meaning a mixture of small insects. Here God announces that the Israelites would be completely free from the plague: only Egypt would suffer.
Commentators differ on the exact creature. They agree on the damage: the pests invade homes and ruin the land itself.
Older English versions add the words "of flies," and the "swarms" may mean swarms of insects of different sorts. They were to come into the houses and also to ruin the land… One insect is extremely destructive to property, and ruins the wood of a house in a short time. The common fly of Egypt is no doubt among them. These flies are very troublesome. They quickly spoil food and keep attacking the body.
Egypt's religion is part of the target. The creature Egypt honoured now torments it, and the God of Israel stands out as the author of the blow.
The fourth plague was even more destructive and significant. These were not the common house flies, but a stronger insect with a very painful bite. They fastened on people and tormented them. It was another blow against the idols of Egypt. The Egyptians revered the beetle as the symbol of creative power, and the Egyptian Sun-god had a beetle's head. This plague did not touch Israel; Jehovah showed that Israel is His people… Here Jehovah is plainly revealed as the author of the plague judgments. His supreme authority stands out.
The threat names Pharaoh, his officials and his people, and goes no further. The swarms stopped at the border of Goshen, where the Israelites lived.
Was there no limitation of this plague? There was. The limit was territorial: not one of these insects reached the land of Goshen. The Israelites stayed free from them, while the insects tormented the Egyptians. Jehovah plagued the Egyptians; Jehovah sheltered His people. Now it was clear what a blessing it must be to belong to that down-trodden and badly afflicted people. The Egyptians might despise and even hate them. The Lord specially favoured them.
One writer points out that this dividing line runs on through the plagues that follow, and gives it a striking name.
The three plagues that follow emphasise the division set between the Egyptians and the Israelites — literally, redemption. I have kept that word for good reasons. God's separation of His people is a redemption, the work of His grace in them as well as for them.
Each plague so far has taken something Egypt relied on and turned it against them.
The river is turned to blood; the means of life and refreshment becomes a witness of judgment. Out of the river come unclean frogs; the source of refreshment spreads defilement. The very dust — the soil that yields rich crops — produces lice, the disgusting corruptions that thrive alongside the world's prosperity. The plague of flies is like them. It shows how everything the world values, if cut off from God, turns into a plague in the end.
Pharaoh's answer to this plague was an offer. It looked generous and was a trap.
The fourth plague — the swarms of flies — seemed to make a deeper impression… It was a very subtle offer. It could easily have trapped Moses and Aaron if they had not known the character and mind of God. Satan does not mind at all if his servants are religious, as long as they stay under his control… If they remain part of the world, the world and its god will love their own.
- Warning. God names the plague before He sends it: its targets, its reach, and the one people He spares.
- Mixture. "Swarms" means a mixture of small insects. Writers differ on the exact creature, but it invaded houses, spoiled food and ruined the land.
- Idols. The creature Egypt worshipped became the tool of Egypt's torment, and God stood out as the author of the judgment.
- Division. Goshen was untouched. The same hand that plagued Egypt sheltered Israel, and that dividing line is called redemption.
- Compromise. Under pressure Pharaoh made a subtle offer: be religious, but stay where you are.
And I will distinguish in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no dog-flies shall be there; that thou mayest know that I Jehovah am in the midst of the land.
Pharaoh had already seen water turn to blood, frogs, and gnats — but this fourth plague came with something new attached to it. This time God named the limit in advance. He would leave one strip of ground untouched, the region where Israel lived. And He gave the reason: Pharaoh must learn who the LORD is.
God says He will "set apart" the land of Goshen and leave it out of the plague. That boundary is itself the miracle, and He named it before the insects arrived.
Notice too that in this fourth plague Israel, in the land of Goshen, is completely free from its effects. The "swarms" appeared on the very next day, as the Lord had said, and this severing of Goshen made the miracle far more impressive. The land was "corrupted," or "destroyed" by these "swarms." That rather supports the idea that they were beetles, for travellers in Egypt have testified to the very destructive habits of the sort of beetles found there.
The swarms did not happen to miss one district by chance. The same hand that sent them held them back at a line, and the people Egypt despised were on the safe side.
Was there no limit to this plague? There was. The limit was territorial, for not one of these insects found its way to the land of Goshen. The Israelites stayed free of them, while the insects tormented the Egyptians. The LORD plagued the Egyptians; the LORD sheltered His people. Now it was clear what a blessing it must be to belong to that downtrodden and badly afflicted race. The Egyptians might despise and even hate them. The Lord gave them special favour. His power showed itself here, His directing hand kept the insects within the set limits, and His mercy would show itself in removing them from the Egyptians.
In the next verse God calls what He is doing a division between His people and Pharaoh's. The Hebrew word behind it carries more freight than the English suggests.
When the Lord God wanted to own His people openly in Egypt, before He brought them out of it, He said to Pharaoh, "I will put a redemption [translated 'a division'] between My people and your people" — and in His grace He did it (read Exodus 8:22-23, margin). It is important to grasp this first meaning. Since sin entered the world, there is no return to God except on the ground of redemption, and it is a return. Of course, separation is not the only or the chief meaning of the word. More often it means rescue, or deliverance, because of a price paid in satisfaction — the ransom.
The insects were not a random choice. Egypt honoured the creature God now used to torment them. Sparing Israel also settled whose people they were.
Swarms of flies covered all Egypt. These were not the common house flies, but a stronger insect with a very painful bite... It was another blow against the idols of Egypt. Egypt revered the beetle as the symbol of creative power, and the Egyptian sun-god had a beetle's head. This plague did not touch Israel. The LORD showed that Israel is His people. None of these terrible judgments touched His people. And this was a sign.
The stated purpose of the sign is a title. God claims the earth as the place where He acts and rules, and here He takes that name.
In Israel they knew Him as the Lord of all the earth (Exodus 8:22; Joshua 3:11; 2 Kings 5:15), for He truly lived among His people and had His throne there.
What happened at Goshen was not a one-off arrangement. Writers trace the same order of events across Scripture.
It is God's way to sever His people from the ungodly, and take them out of their midst, before His judgment falls. He acted like this before the flood, and again in Egypt. He did the same at Sodom, and with His people before the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
The dividing line runs in two directions at once.
The testimony to Pharaoh, in which a division is made between Israel and the Egyptians. As a picture, it testifies to the separation of the world from Him on whom it depends, and the separation of His people from the world.
- Division — God marks Goshen off from the plague. He calls it a division between His people and Pharaoh's, and the word translated "division" is the word for redemption.
- Demonstration — the swarms came on the day named and stopped at a border. That made the miracle plain: the LORD plagued Egypt and sheltered Israel.
- Declaration — the purpose was a name. He is the Lord of all the earth, and He had His throne among His people.
- Defeat of idols — Egypt honoured the beetle. God used swarms of insects to torment the country, so the blow fell on its gods.
- Design repeated — God's regular way is to separate His own before judgment falls. The picture runs both ways: the world is cut off from God, and His people are set apart from the world.
And I will put a separation between my people and thy people; to-morrow shall this sign be.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And Jehovah did so; and there came dog-flies in a multitude into the house of Pharaoh, and [into] the houses of his bondmen; and throughout the land of Egypt, the land was corrupted by the dog-flies.
The fourth plague falls just as Moses had warned, and this time the harm reaches the land itself, while Goshen, where Israel lives, stays clear. So what were these swarms, why did God ruin a whole land, and what does the untouched region prove?
The word behind "swarms" is uncertain, and translators have had to guess. One writer traces the trouble to where the word came from, and to the Septuagint, the old Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures:
Seven times the text calls it "swarms." The English translators added the words "of flies" in italics, because the word in the original is clearly Egyptian and not Hebrew, and no one knows exactly what it means. The Septuagint uses a Greek word meaning "dog-flies," and this is the word used in Darby's New Translation. Other authorities believe it really means "beetles." If so, that again brings in the gods of Egypt, for they honoured the beetle.
Commentators differ. Another traces the word to a Hebrew root and reaches a different result:
The word used about it (arob) seems plainly derived from arab, to mix, and would mean "mixture," as the margin of the King James Version has it. The word appears nowhere else except in the book of Psalms (Ps. 78:45; Ps. 105:31), referring to the same infliction... The Septuagint has "the dog-fly," and by this or "the gad-fly" many would translate it. But the authority of the Septuagint, though great, is far from infallible.
Whatever the creature was, the harm went past discomfort. Property, food and people all suffered at once:
They were to come into the houses and also to corrupt the land... One insect is extremely destructive to property, ruining the wood of a house in a short time. No doubt the common fly of Egypt is included: they are very troublesome, soon defiling food, and persistently attacking the body.
The ruin of the land carries a lesson about anything people value apart from God:
The dust itself, the soil that grows rich crops, produces lice. These are the disgusting corruptions that thrive alongside the world's prosperity (Ex. 8:16). The plague of flies is like it (Ex. 8:20). It shows how everything the world values, once cut off from God, turns at last into a plague.
The ruin stopped at a border. That limit showed both God's power and His care:
Was there no limitation of this plague? There was. It was territorial in limit, for not one of these insects found its way to the land of Goshen. The Israelites stayed free of them, while the flies tormented the Egyptians. Jehovah plagued the Egyptians; Jehovah sheltered His people. Now it was clear what a blessing it must be to belong to that oppressed and badly treated people... God had sent the swarms; of that there was no doubt. His power was on display. His directing hand kept the insects within the set limits, and His mercy would be seen in removing them from the Egyptians.
Egypt honoured these creatures; now they tormented Egypt. And the word for God's separating of Israel has its own meaning:
Swarms of flies covered all Egypt. These were not the common house flies. They were a stronger insect with a very painful bite. There were different kinds of them. "He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them" (Psalm 78:45)... It was another blow against the idols of Egypt. The beetle was revered as the symbol of creative power and the Egyptian Sun-god had a beetle's head. This plague did not touch Israel. Jehovah showed that Israel is His people... The word "division" in verse 23 means "redemption."
Ruin moved Pharaoh further than the earlier plagues had — and his answer was a compromise:
The fourth plague — the swarms of flies — seemed to produce a deeper impression. "Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, Go, sacrifice to your God within the land." This was a very clever offer. It could easily have trapped Moses and Aaron if they had not known the character and mind of God. Satan has no objection at all to his servants being religious if they will still continue under his control... If they will only stay part of the world, then the world and its god will love their own.
- Word — translators added "of flies." Some read the word as dog-flies, some as beetles, some as "mixture." Commentators differ.
- Ruin — the swarms destroyed property, spoiled food and attacked the body. The plague struck the land itself, not only the people on it.
- Lesson — what the world values, held apart from God, turns at last into a plague against its owners.
- Line — not one insect crossed into Goshen. The hand that sent them fixed their limits and sheltered His people while Egypt suffered.
- Response — the worse the damage, the more tempting Pharaoh's offer: worship God, but stay in the land.
And Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron, and said, Go, sacrifice to your God in the land.
Swarms of insects have ruined Egypt. Under that pressure Pharaoh calls for Moses with an offer that sounds fair: worship your God, but do it here, inside Egypt. Can God's people serve Him without leaving the place that holds them?
Pharaoh's offer is not a change of heart. It comes only after the plague, and it falls short of what God commanded.
The warning again meant nothing to Pharaoh, so the swarms of insects devastated the land. Then Pharaoh grew worried enough to call Moses and Aaron. He told them they could go and sacrifice to God, but inside Egypt (v. 25). Moses could not accept this. God's order was to go three days' journey before sacrificing. On top of that, the Egyptians regarded the sacrifice of sheep and oxen as something detestable, and they would turn violent if it was done in Egypt (v. 26).
This verse begins a pattern. Each later offer gives away a little more ground while still keeping something back.
Pharaoh said, "Go, sacrifice to your God within the land" (Ex. 8:25), that is, set up worldly worship. Moses replies, "We will go three days' journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the LORD our God as he tells us" (v. 27). Then Pharaoh said, "I will let you go... only you must not go very far away" (v. 28), that is, don't be very separate. The next question was, "Go, serve the LORD your God. But which ones are to go?"... Pharaoh replies, "No! Go, the men among you" (Ex. 10:11). This means the parents may be for the Lord, but the children must be kept in the world.
Commentators see someone else speaking through Pharaoh. The aim of the offer is not to help Israel but to silence the witness to God's name.
It hardly needs saying that whether the magicians resisted or Pharaoh objected, Satan was really the one standing behind the scenes. His obvious aim in this proposal of Pharaoh was to hinder the testimony to the Lord's name. That testimony was bound up with the complete separation of His people from Egypt. If they had stayed in Egypt, there could clearly be no such testimony, even if they had sacrificed to Him. They would have shared common ground with the uncircumcised Egyptians. They would have put Jehovah on a level with the gods of Egypt.
after In this case an Egyptian could have said to an Israelite, "I see no difference between us; you have your worship and we have ours; it is all alike."
The trap is that the offer sounds kind. A king making room for another religion looks generous, and it is easy to argue for saying yes.
These were subtle words. They were well designed to trap a heart that was not in communion with the mind of God. Someone could argue it, and make it sound both believable and strong: Isn't it remarkably generous of the king of Egypt to tolerate your own way of worship? Isn't it a great stretch of kindness to give your religion a place on the public platform?... Why this demand for separation? Why not take common ground with your neighbours?
Something in us wants the offer to work. It lets us keep both things at once.
The heart may crave religiousness because conscience testifies that all is not right; but it craves the world as well. It would like to "sacrifice to God in the land." Satan reaches his goal when people accept a worldly religion and refuse to "come out and be separate."
The offer fails on its own terms. If Israel could worship inside Egypt, they never needed to leave — and by the same logic, the cross was never needed.
Here again is "mixture" — a half obedience which is not obedience. Worship God where you are, he says. As a picture, that means: stay in the world; don't leave it. But that is impossible. In the world, faith's sacrifice is an abomination, and Christ's cross only an offence. The cross is the judgment of the world — of man in the flesh — and if we can worship there, no cross is needed.
Another writer names what such worship would actually be, and what it quietly leaves out.
Worship in Egypt is worship in the flesh, Cain's worship, which does not own our ruin, nor Christ as meeting it. Death and resurrection have no place there. There is no redemption, and therefore practically no Redeemer.
Moses answers Pharaoh's "within the land" with a distance. That distance carries the whole meaning.
Here is true separation from Egypt — "three days' journey." Nothing less than this could satisfy faith. The Israel of God must be separated from the land of death and darkness, in the power of resurrection... There could be no tabernacle, no temple, no altar, in Egypt... The believer must know where the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ have forever set him. Only then can he be an intelligent worshipper, an acceptable servant, or an effective witness.
- Pressure: Pharaoh bargains only after the plague has ruined his land. Fear moved him, not repentance.
- Proposal: "Within the land" is the first of several offers. Each one trims the distance or holds back the children.
- Purpose: The aim is to silence the witness to God's name by putting Him on a level with the gods of Egypt.
- Problem: Worship inside Egypt is half obedience, which is no obedience. If we can worship there, no cross is needed.
- Path: Moses answers with three days' journey. Worship stands on Christ's death and resurrection, or it is not worship.
And Moses said, It is not proper to do so; for we should sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to Jehovah our God lo, if we sacrificed the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, would they not stone us?
Pharaoh offers Israel permission to worship — but only inside Egypt. Moses refuses. His answer shows what Egypt worshipped, and why God's people could not raise an altar there.
Pharaoh's offer looks generous. It is the first of four moves to keep Israel in his grip.
Pharaoh now makes the first of four subtle objections to the full deliverance and complete separation of God's people from the land of Egypt: "Go, sacrifice to your God within the land." Behind the scenes it was really Satan, and his aim in this proposal was to hinder the testimony to the Lord's name — a testimony bound up with the complete separation of His people from Egypt. There could clearly be no such testimony had they remained in Egypt, even though they were to sacrifice to Him. They would have taken common ground with the uncircumcised Egyptians, and put Jehovah on a level with the gods of Egypt. An Egyptian could have said to an Israelite: "I see no difference between us. You have your worship and we have ours. It is all alike."
The word is not vague disgust. It names idolatry. Older translations read the phrase as "the abomination of the Egyptians" — Egypt's own idol — and the writers below follow that reading.
Here, as elsewhere, the word "abomination" stands for idolatry. Chemosh was the abomination of the Moabites, and Milcom of the Ammonites. Egypt worshipped Apis — the sacred bull. Throughout Scripture the ox pictures the labourer. Above all, the ox fits as a picture of God's Labourer — the patient, tireless Worker for God's glory and man's blessing. But of this Worker and His work, the Egyptian world knows nothing.
Moses said this to Pharaoh's face. He knew how Egyptians felt about their sacred animals.
The suggestion and the compromise so moved Moses that he feared neither great Pharaoh nor his priests and princes. At once he called deified bulls, sacred heifers and other four-footed beasts an "abomination." What is more, it was cattle that Israel would sacrifice to God! Would Egyptian religious feeling put up with such an outrage, done in front of their own eyes by their slaves? Even at Pharaoh's bidding? Killing a cat or a sacred animal meant certain death for a foreigner. When a cat in a house died, all the men of the house showed their grief by acts of mourning.
Beyond the danger there was a deeper problem. Abraham's example shows it.
It would have been morally unfitting to sacrifice to Jehovah the very object of Egyptian worship. But there is more. Egypt was not the place to build an altar to the true God. Abraham had no altar when he turned aside into Egypt. He gave up his worship and his place as a stranger when he went down there. If Abraham could not worship there, neither could his descendants.
The clash was not only about bulls. It pictures why the world still rejects Christian worship.
Moses rejected the offer at once. The sacrifices of Jehovah would have been a deadly offence to the people of Egypt and would have provoked murder. Here again we can see a deeper picture. At the root of all our worship stands the unique excellence of Christ, set against the condemnation of Adam's race as fallen sinners. A doctrine that involves that judgment is an abomination to the world.
Moses does not just refuse. He names a distance, and it points to resurrection.
Here is true separation from Egypt — "three days' journey." Nothing less than this could satisfy faith. The Israel of God must be separated from the land of death and darkness, in the power of resurrection. The waters of the Red Sea must roll between God's redeemed and Egypt before they can rightly sacrifice to Jehovah. … The believer must know where the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ have forever set him, before he can be an intelligent worshipper, an acceptable servant, or an effectual witness.
What was true for Israel holds for us.
No, we cannot worship, or be really for God, while we are in Egypt — that is, the world. "We must go three days' journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the LORD our God as He tells us" (verse 27) is the answer of faith. … It is a principle of immense value for your soul and mine, that if I am going to have God and be for Him, I must do without the world.
- Offer — Pharaoh allows worship, but only inside Egypt. That would have put Israel's God on a level with Egypt's gods.
- Abomination — the word means idolatry. Egypt worshipped the bull, the very animal Israel had to sacrifice.
- Stoning — the danger was real. In Egypt, killing a sacred animal meant death, and Moses called those animals an abomination to Pharaoh's face.
- Altar — Egypt was no place for an altar to the true God. Abraham built none there, and neither could his descendants.
- Journey — three days' journey is the measure of true separation. To be for God, we must do without the world.
We will go three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to Jehovah our God, as he shall command us.
Pharaoh has just made his first offer: sacrifice to your God, but do it here in Egypt. Moses answers with a distance and an authority: three days out, and worship as God directs.
The offer to worship without leaving Egypt kept Israel exactly where Pharaoh wanted them.
This was a most subtle offer, and one that might easily have trapped Moses and Aaron if they had not known the character and mind of God. Satan has no objection at all to his servants being religious, so long as they stay under his control. They may claim to serve God as much and as loudly as they like, if they will only recognise his authority... So Satan keeps advising, "Serve me and God. Sacrifice to your God, but stay in the land." One word of Scripture unravels all such plausible reasoning: "No one can serve two masters... You cannot serve God and money."
Pharaoh then shifted his ground instead of giving it up.
God's judgments began to fall still heavier on Pharaoh. Then he says, "I will let you go to sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness; only you must not go very far away." This is compromise number two. You can be a Christian, he says to an awakened soul, but do not be too earnest, or too decided.
Moses gives a reason before he gives a distance: what Israel would kill, Egypt adored. The word "abomination" carries a specific weight.
The word "abomination" stands here, as elsewhere, for idolatry. Chemosh was the abomination of the Moabites, and Milcom was of the Ammonites. The worship of Egypt was that of Apis — the sacred bull. Throughout Scripture the ox pictures the labourer. Above all, the ox suits God's Labourer — the patient, tireless Worker for God's glory and man's blessing. But of this Worker and His work, the Egyptian world knows nothing.
Commentators read the number as more than travel time.
The shortest distance that must separate Israel from Egypt is three days — death and resurrection. "Three days' journey" carried them to the other side of the Red Sea. There God vindicates His righteousness; there Justice strikes and Mercy saves. It pictures the Cross, where in an infinitely greater sense God carried out judgment and accomplished salvation.
The same distance decides whether a person can worship at all.
Here is true separation from Egypt — "three days' journey." Nothing less than this could satisfy faith... There could be no tabernacle, no temple, no altar, in Egypt. It had no site anywhere within its borders for anything of that kind... The believer must first know where the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ have set him forever. Only then can he worship with understanding, serve acceptably, or bear effective witness.
Moses does not only fix the place. He adds that the sacrifice must follow God's own direction. Neither Pharaoh nor Israel sets the pattern.
We must worship God according to Himself (John 4). Taking anything as authority in religion except what comes from Him mutilates worship... Man is not to decide his own ways as a worshipper. Willingness in worship is right; wilfulness destroys it all. They brought their offerings of their own free will (Lev. 1:3; 7:16), but they had to do this as and where the LORD willed. So with us: we are to worship "in spirit" — that is entirely true — in the grace and liberty of the Holy Spirit given to us. But we are to worship "in truth" also, according to God's revelation of Himself and of His worship.
The distance Moses insisted on still strikes onlookers as excessive.
And still the world asks, "Why do you need to go outside it? You are entitled to your opinions, but why be so extreme? Why three days' journey into the wilderness? Why separate from what you were brought up in, and from people as good as you?" Ah, they do not know what that three days' journey means — that the death and resurrection of Christ place you where you are no more of the world than He is! Egypt — luxurious, civilised, self-satisfied, idolatrous Egypt — and the wilderness! What a contrast! Yet only in the wilderness can you sacrifice to God.
- Offer. Pharaoh's first offer let Israel be religious and stay under his control. He allows religion, as long as he keeps the authority.
- Obstacle. What Israel would sacrifice, Egypt worshipped; Egypt had no place anywhere in it for an altar to the true God.
- Distance. Three days is the shortest gap between Israel and Egypt. It is the space of death and resurrection, seen again at the Red Sea.
- Direction. Worship "as he tells us" hands the pattern back to God: willingness is right, wilfulness ruins it.
- Outcome. First know where the death and resurrection of Christ have placed you. Then you can worship, serve, and witness with understanding.
And Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that you may sacrifice to Jehovah your God in the wilderness; only, go not very far away intreat for me!
Pressed to get the blow lifted, Pharaoh allows the journey — but he sets a limit on it and asks for prayer in the same breath. The offer costs him nothing. Commentators see the trap in it: if God's people must leave, keep them near enough to pull them back.
Pharaoh had already offered to let them sacrifice inside Egypt. This is his next move.
Pharaoh's second objection was much like the first in character and tendency. "I will let you go to sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness; only you must not go very far away." If he could not keep them in Egypt, he would at least try to keep them near it. Then he could work on them through its many influences. That way they might be brought back again, and the testimony crushed more effectively than if they had never left Egypt at all.
Another writer sets the offer in its sequence and puts it in plain terms.
Pharaoh is a picture of Satan's energy as prince of the world, then as now. He contested every inch of the road, and offered a series of compromises when he was hard pressed. He said, "Go, sacrifice to your God within the land" — that is, set up worldly worship. Moses replied, "We must go three days' journey into the wilderness." Then Pharaoh said, "only you must not go very far away" — that is, don't be very separate.
Moses had already named the distance, and he did not choose it at random.
Moses answers these two scheming proposals with calm dignity. That calm shows a fixed purpose far more clearly than all the stormy anger shown against him. "We must go three days' journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the LORD our God." That is the shortest distance that must separate Israel from Egypt: three days — death and resurrection. The three days' journey carried them to the far side of the Red Sea. There God vindicates His righteousness; there Justice strikes and Mercy saves. It is a picture of the cross. There, in an infinitely larger sense, God carried out judgment and accomplished salvation. The cross ends Egypt for the disciple and begins the wilderness.
Pharaoh's limit produces people who have left and yet not left.
So if people do not "go very far away," they had better not go at all. The enemy knew this well, and that is why he raised his second objection. Keeping a border position suits his purpose wonderfully. Those who stand on that ground are neither one thing nor the other. In fact, whatever influence they have works entirely in the wrong direction.
The same writer tests what giving up the world really means.
There is a very wide difference between giving up certain worldly things and giving up the world itself. We may give up the theatre, the ballroom, the racecourse, the billiard table, and still cling to the world just the same. We may cut off some of the branches and yet hold on tightly to the old trunk.
Pharaoh's plea for prayer sounds like softening. Moses agreed to pray — and warned him.
Pharaoh does not openly reject Moses' demand; he stalls and pretends, to get the blow lifted. His cry is, "Plead for me." Moses agrees. But he adds a solemn warning that shows he saw through the king's thin cover of hypocrisy: "only let not Pharaoh cheat again by not letting the people go to sacrifice to the LORD." Then the trouble passed, and the record runs as usual: "But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and did not let the people go."
Yet God answered the plea. The same writer looks at what that shows about Him.
He saw the end from the beginning, but He removed His hand when Moses interceded for the Egyptian king. God is never impatient, even in the face of open rebellion. He waits His own time, bearing with the wickedness and godlessness of men in long-suffering and grace.
If the trap is nearness to Egypt, the answer is not a stricter rule but a stronger attachment.
It is one of Satan's masterpieces to lead professing Christians to be satisfied with looking to the cross for salvation while they stay in the world. Or he leads them to hold a border position — "not going very far away." This is a terrible snare, and we warn the Christian reader against it most solemnly. What is the remedy? True heart-devotion to a rejected and glorified Christ, and fellowship with Him.
- Distance demanded. Moses named three days' journey — the space of death and resurrection, reaching the far side of the Red Sea.
- Distance disputed. Pharaoh grants the journey but caps it: don't be very separate. Failing to keep them in, he tries to keep them near.
- Distance shortened. You can cut branches and keep the trunk; you can drop some worldly things and keep the world in the heart.
- Distance lost. Those on the border are neither one thing nor the other, and their influence works in the wrong direction.
- Distance kept. "Plead for me" without a changed heart ends in a hardened heart. Only devotion to a rejected and glorified Christ holds the ground.
And Moses said, Behold, I go out from thee, and will intreat Jehovah; and the dog-flies will depart from Pharaoh, from his bondmen, and from his people, to-morrow; only let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully any more in not letting the people go to sacrifice to Jehovah.
The swarms of flies have driven Pharaoh to bargain. He will let Israel go to sacrifice, but only on his terms, and he wants Moses to pray the plague away. Moses agrees to pray. In the same breath he warns the king not to break his word again. Why does a small limit on freedom matter so much? And why pray for a man you already know is lying?
Pharaoh had first told Israel to worship inside Egypt. Moses refused, so the king moved — but only a little.
Pharaoh clearly had to admit the force of this objection. He changed his offer at once: he would allow a very short journey into the wilderness, only not very far away. He wanted them well within reach of his arm, so that their separation from his land would be in name only, and temporary.
Another writer sees the same move as an effort to bargain with God Himself.
He gave way a little, so as to let the people sacrifice inside the land. Would that not satisfy the God he had offended? He tried to make terms with God. What folly! His offer was rejected at once.
Commentators see a deliberate strategy behind Pharaoh's limit.
If he could not keep them in Egypt, he would at least try to keep them near it, so that its many influences could still work on them. That way they might be drawn back again, and their testimony silenced more completely than if they had never left Egypt at all. People who seem to give up the world and then return to it do far more serious damage to the cause of Christ than if they had stayed in it all along. They are as good as saying that they tried heavenly things and found earthly things better and more satisfying.
He presses the point to its practical conclusion.
So if people do not "go very far away," they had better not go at all. The enemy knew this well, and that is why he raised this second objection. Holding a border position suits his purpose perfectly. Those who stand there are neither one thing nor the other, and whatever influence they have works entirely in the wrong direction.
The warning in this verse is not a general caution. Moses saw what the king was doing.
Pharaoh does not openly reject what Moses demands. He delays and pretends, to get the blow removed. His cry is, "Plead for me." Moses agrees, but adds the solemn warning. It shows that he saw through the king's thin covering of hypocrisy.
Moses kept his own word. He prayed, and God answered in full.
With this offer the king asked Moses to pray for him. Moses agreed, but warned him against the deceitful course he had been following. The Lord acted according to the prayer of Moses, and another great miracle took place. The next day the swarms left so completely that not one insect remained in the land. But once the trouble was gone, Pharaoh ignored the warning. He hardened his heart again and refused to allow what he had just promised. How true all this is to human nature! Under trouble people seem to become quite devout. The trouble is removed, and they go straight back to their godless ways.
God answered a prayer made for a man who was lying. One writer sees in this how God deals with a hardened sinner.
It is beautiful to notice God's tender ways of grace, even with a hardened sinner. If there is even the slightest turning of heart towards Him, He is ready to hear, although He knows the turning is not real. This strikingly shows that He does not want the sinner's death. He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9.)
God knew what Pharaoh would do next, and He still answered the prayer.
He saw the end from the beginning, yet He removed His hand when Moses prayed for the Egyptian king. God is never impatient, even faced with open rebellion. He waits for His own time, bearing with the wickedness and irreverence of men in long-suffering and grace. If He is so patient, we surely might learn to be patient too, confident that in His own time He will show the world that His government is righteous.
- Bargain. Pharaoh's offer was freedom with a leash — a journey short enough to keep Israel inside the reach of his arm.
- Border. A separation in name only serves the enemy better than none. Those who do not go far had better not go.
- Warning. Moses saw through the king's thin cover of hypocrisy and named the sin before Pharaoh repeated it.
- Prayer. Moses prayed anyway, adding a warning, and God removed every insect from the land.
- Grace. God hears even a turning He knows is not real. He is not willing that any should perish. That leaves the deceiver, not the plague, as the real problem.
And Moses went out from Pharaoh, and intreated Jehovah.
Pharaoh has just agreed to let Israel go — but only if they stay close by. Moses warns him not to break his word again, then walks out and prays for the man who has been lying to him.
Pharaoh never refuses Moses outright. He stalls, and then asks for prayer — and Moses answers the request with a warning attached.
Pharaoh does not openly reject the demand of Moses; he plays for time and pretends, in order to get the blow lifted. His cry is, "Plead for me." Moses agrees, but he adds a solemn warning. It shows that he saw through the king's flimsy covering of hypocrisy: "Only let not Pharaoh cheat again by not letting the people go to sacrifice to the LORD."
Behind the request lies a bid to bargain. Pharaoh had first offered to let Israel sacrifice inside Egypt, without leaving.
Pharaoh again had to come as a beggar, and bow before Moses to plead for him. He gave way a little, so as to let the people sacrifice in the land. Would that not satisfy the offended deity? He tried to make terms with God. What folly! His offer was rejected at once.
Moses doubted Pharaoh would keep his word. He prayed anyway.
Moses was plainly doubtful about Pharaoh's sincerity, but told him all the same that he would pray for this release, which he did (vv. 29-30).
Moses prayed for the flies to go. He did not pray for Pharaoh's terms. One writer shows what the words "not very far away" were meant to do.
Pharaoh's second objection had much the same character and aim as the first. "I will let you go to sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness; only you must not go very far away." If he could not keep them in Egypt, he would at least try to keep them near it. Then he could work on them through its various influences. In this way they might be brought back again, and the testimony silenced more effectively than if they had never left Egypt at all.
The same words come back as advice to anyone starting out with God.
How cunning Satan is. Don't be too thorough, he says to a young convert: "You must not go very far away." How many a young believer the devil has tripped up with a word like that. Do not go very far. Do not be an enthusiast. Listen. The further you go from the world the better.
God answered the prayer in full — and the relief exposed the heart it relieved.
With this concession the king asked Moses to pray for him. Moses agreed, and added a warning against the deceitful line he had been following. The LORD acted according to the prayer of Moses and another great miracle took place. On the next day the swarms left so thoroughly that not one insect remained in the land. But once the affliction lifted, Pharaoh ignored the warning. Again he hardened his heart and refused the concession he had just promised. How true all this is to human nature! Under affliction people appear to become quite religious. Then the affliction lifts, and they go straight back to their godless ways.
God was not deceived about Pharaoh. One writer draws out why He still lifted His hand.
He saw the end from the beginning. Yet He removed His hand when Moses interceded for the Egyptian king. God is never impatient, even when men openly rebel. He waits for His own time, bearing with the wickedness and ungodliness of men in long-suffering and grace. If He is so patient, we should surely learn to be patient too — turning our eyes to Him, confident that in His own time He will vindicate His righteous government before the eyes of the world.
- Pressure. Pharaoh's "plead for me" comes from a man under a blow, not from a changed heart. He stalls, pretends, and tries to make terms with God.
- Prayer. Moses doubts the promise and prays anyway. He gives the warning and the prayer together.
- Limit. Moses asks God to lift the flies. He does not accept the condition that Israel stay near Egypt, because staying near is how the enemy keeps his hold.
- Answer. God answers in full: the next day not one insect is left. He lifts His hand though He sees the end from the beginning.
- Test. Relief is the real test. Pharaoh hardens the moment the pressure lifts, and religion that lasts only as long as the trouble is the pattern of human nature.
And Jehovah did according to the word of Moses; and he removed the dog-flies from Pharaoh, from his bondmen, and from his people; there remained not one.
Pharaoh had begged Moses to pray, and this verse records the answer: the swarms go, and they go completely. The relief was total. The real question is what Pharaoh did with it once the pressure lifted.
One writer looks at what happened the day after Moses prayed:
The Lord acted according to the prayer of Moses and another great miracle took place. On the next day the swarms departed so thoroughly that not one insect remained in the land.
Moses did not pray because he trusted Pharaoh. He prayed and warned in the same breath. What happened next proved the warning right:
Pharaoh does not openly reject the demand of Moses; he stalls and pretends, to get the blow removed. His cry is, "Entreat for me." Moses agrees, but adds a solemn warning. It shows that he saw through the king's flimsy covering of hypocrisy: "Do not let Pharaoh deal deceitfully again by not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord." Then the trouble was gone, and the usual record follows: "And Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and would not let the people go."
Why lift the flies at all from a king who meant to break his word? Because every stroke that stops says something about how God judges:
In general the plagues grow more severe, until they reach their peak in the death of the firstborn. So they point to the judgment that certainly awaits the sinner. But the stopping of each stroke shows that God is willing to withdraw His hand from judgment. It shows judgment to be His strange work. Pharaoh hardens his heart in two ways. He refuses to bow under the plagues. He also keeps to his course when God answers his cry and lifts the plague. So neither God's severity in sending the plague, nor His goodness in lifting it, has any effect on a man whose heart is fully set to do evil.
after_check: meaning kept
God was not deceived by the promise He answered:
He saw the end from the beginning. Yet He removed His hand when Moses interceded for the Egyptian king. God is never impatient, even in the face of open rebellion. He waits for His own time, bearing with the wickedness and godlessness of men in long-suffering and grace.
The pattern is not unique to a king in Egypt. Pressure produces religion; comfort ends it.
But once the plague was lifted, Pharaoh ignored the warning. He hardened his heart again and refused the concession he had just promised. How true all this is to human nature! Under trouble people seem to become very religious. Once the trouble goes, they go straight back to their godless ways.
The flies were gone, but the bigger question was not. One writer points beyond this verse to what still lay ahead:
The flies were removed. There was not one. Pharaoh was again unyielding. Who would really prevail? The outcome will show. God had struck the waters and dealt with the ground as well. He would deal further with the king, his people, and his land before Israel came out a free and ransomed people.
- Asked — Pharaoh's only move under pressure was "Entreat for me"; he wanted the blow gone, not God's will done.
- Answered — God acted on Moses' prayer. The removal was another miracle: not one insect left.
- Mercy — God saw the end from the beginning, yet He withdrew His hand when Moses prayed. Judgment is His strange work.
- Wasted — neither the severe plague nor its kind removal moved a heart set on evil. Relief only hardened Pharaoh.
- Unfinished — who would prevail was still an open question. More dealings lay ahead before Israel came out free and ransomed.
And Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and would not let the people go.
Pharaoh had just watched the swarms vanish at Moses' prayer, and he had already promised to let Israel go. Verse 32 shows what he did with that answered prayer, and it raises the hardest question here: who hardened this heart — Pharaoh, or God?
The turning point is not the plague but its removal. Once the pressure lifted, so did the promise.
The Lord acted according to the prayer of Moses and another great miracle took place. On the next day the swarms left so completely that not one insect remained in the land. But once this plague was lifted, and despite the warning, Pharaoh hardened his heart again. He refused to allow what he had just promised. How true all this is to human nature! When trouble comes, people seem to become very religious. Then the trouble lifts, and they go back to their godless ways.
Moses had asked Pharaoh not to act deceitfully again. Verse 32 shows the warning was needed, and it became the usual record of this king.
Pharaoh does not openly reject the demand of Moses; he delays and pretends, to get the blow removed. His cry is, "Plead for me." Moses agrees. But he adds a solemn warning, showing that he saw through the king's thin cover of hypocrisy: "Only let not Pharaoh cheat again by not letting the people go to sacrifice to the LORD." But once the trouble was gone, the usual record follows: "But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and did not let the people go."
Even the promise he broke was a reduced one. Israel could go, but not far. One writer sees the same tactic aimed at new believers today.
This firm reply of Moses leads to Pharaoh's second compromise: "I will let you go, that you may sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness; only you must not go very far away." How cunning Satan is. Don't be too wholehearted, he says to a young convert: "You shall not go very far away." The devil has tripped up many a young believer with words like these. Do not go very far. Do not be an enthusiast. Listen. The further you go from the world the better.
Scripture is careful about who does the hardening. In 8:32 Pharaoh does it to himself.
It is true that God hardened Pharaoh's heart. But He did so only after Pharaoh had shown extreme and incredible arrogance by saying, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice…?" He did so only after Pharaoh had hardened his own heart again and again. In fact the Spirit uses two different words in the original language. No fewer than seven times, Scripture says that Pharaoh hardened his heart (Ex. 7:13, 14, 22; 8:15, 19, 32; 9:7). Only after that does it say God hardened the heart of Pharaoh (Ex. 9:12).
God's own hardening is real. But it comes later, as a judgment on unbelief, never as its cause.
God never compelled a man to be an unbeliever. In short, unbelief never begins as the result of God's judicial hardening. Is there no such thing then as hardening? Undoubtedly there is. It is an error to suppose that God hardens a person when He first sends a testimony. It is just as much an error to deny that He hardens a person after that person has refused His testimony.
Pharaoh's broken word did not catch God off guard.
But again and again we are reminded that this was no surprise to God. He saw the end from the beginning; but He removed His hand when Moses interceded for the Egyptian king. God is never impatient, even in the presence of open rebellion.
Each time God lifted a plague, He was showing mercy. Pharaoh turned that mercy into his chance to harden.
Is God's sovereignty not seen here? Again and again God acted in sovereign mercy and removed the plagues. But this mercy only became the occasion of Pharaoh hardening his heart (see Ex. 7:13, 22; 8:15, 19, 32; 9:7).
That patience has a limit, and Exodus shows where it runs out.
God was very patient with Pharaoh and with Egypt when they persecuted His people. He gave them plenty of time and opportunity to repent and to obey His voice. But Pharaoh kept hardening his heart. So the Lord in judgment hardened it, and there was no longer room for repentance.
- Relief. The heart hardened after the swarms were gone, not while they were there. Pressure produced promises; relief cancelled them.
- Deceit. Moses had named the pattern before it repeated. So this verse is not a shock failure; it is hypocrisy exposed.
- Half-measures. Even the promise Pharaoh broke was a compromise. "Not very far away" is still the tactic aimed at anyone leaving the world behind.
- Order. Seven times Pharaoh hardens his own heart, and 8:32 is one of them. Only later does Scripture say God hardened him. God never makes the first move into unbelief.
- Limit. Mercy given again and again, and abused again and again, ends in hardening as God's judgment. Then there is no room left for repentance.