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.