Exodus: A Group StudySample

What is this passage saying?

Yahweh devastates Pharaoh and the Egyptians by sending plagues of frogs, gnats, and swarming flies. As the plagues progress, the magicians of Egypt are unable to produce the signs and the Israelites are protected.

What is this passage teaching?

As with the Nile, each of these plagues correlated to an aspect of Egyptian worship. Frogs related to the goddess of fertility and came to be associated with midwives. Again, it is no coincidence Yahweh judges the Egyptian god of midwives after Pharaoh tried to use Israelite midwives to kill Israelite boys. As they came from the dust of the earth, the gnats represented a judgment against the god of the ground and soil. Instead of cultivating produce and vegetation, the ground was producing destruction. Finally, the flies are related to the god of creation and rebirth. The last plague was significant because it was the first plague that did not affect the Israelites. Yahweh was beginning to distinguish His people from the Egyptians and showing Pharaoh the special regard He had for Israel.

How do I respond?

A sinister idol in the world today is performance and productivity. This god often looks like an 80-hour workweek, a lack of deep connection with family and friends, and a regular sacrifice of spiritual objectives on the altar of “busyness”. When you worship what your hands can produce, you will always be enslaved to the taskmaster of your limitations and always rewarded with unmet expectations. God’s solution to idols of unbridled productivity is not laziness or idleness but rest. Of all the laws given in Exodus, none is repeated more than the command to keep the Sabbath (Exodus 16:22-26; 20:8-11; 23:10-12; 31:12-17; 35:1-3). For recently enslaved people, the command to take a whole day of rest every week would have been a profound relief. No longer would their survivability be determined by their productivity, but by their rest. Friend, the same is true for you today. Jesus said, “Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” What would it look like for you to take an extended period of rest this week? What obligations could be moved, appointments canceled, or deadlines pushed back to give you time to rest in Jesus?