The Plague of Lice and Flies

Exodus chapter 8 is where we are today. Exodus chapter 8. And today we're going to go at warp speed. We're going to cover two plagues today. Verse number 16 is where we're going to pick up the narrative. It says these words: Then the Lord said to Moses, Say to Aaron, Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, and it may become gnat. That it may become gnats to all the land of Egypt. And they did so, and Aaron stretched out his hand with the staff, and struck the dust of the earth. And there were gnats on man and beast.

All the dust of the earth became gnats through all the land of Egypt. And the magicians tried with their secret arts to bring forth gnats, but they could not. So there were gnats on man and beast. Then the magician said to Pharaoh, This is the finger of God. But Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them as the LORD had said. Now the LORD said to Moses, R early in the morning, present yourself before Pharaoh, as he comes out to the water, and say to him, Thus says the LORD Let my people go, that they may serve me.

For if you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of insects on you, and on your servants, and on your people, and into your houses. And the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of insects, and also the ground on which they dwell. But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people are living, so that no swarms of insects will be there, in order that you may know. That I, the Lord, am in the midst of the land, and I will put a division between my people and your people.

Tom this sign shall occur. Then the LORD did so, and there came great swarms of insects into the house of Pharaoh, and the houses of his servants, and the land was laid waste, because of the swarms of insects in all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said, Go sacrifice to your God within the land. But Moses said, It is not right to do so, for we shall sacrifice to the Lord our God, what is an abomination to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice what is an abomination to the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not then stone us?

We must go a three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the Lord our God as he commands us. And Pharaoh said I will let you go, that you may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness. Only you shall not go very far away. Make supplication for me. Then Moses said, Behold, I am going out from you, and I shall make supplication to the LORD, that the swarms of insects may depart from Pharaoh. From his servants and from his people tomorrow. Only do not let Pharaoh deal deceitfully again in not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.

So Moses went out from Pharaoh and made supplication to the LORD. And the LORD did as Moses asked, and removed the swarms of insects from Pharaoh, from his servants, from his people. Not one remained. But Pharaoh hardened his heart, this time also, and he did not let the people go. The plagues of lice and flies, these little gnats, hardly at all visible to the To the naked eye, yet you could feel them so small they would embed themselves in your hair, in your eyelids, inside your eyes, up your nostrils, inside your ears.

They were a pesty little gnat. That would have a stinging effect. In this plague of what some commentators call lice, others call stinging gnats, whatever it may be, it was. A great nuisance to the land of Egypt. I want you to notice four things with me about that this morning.

Number one is that there was no warning. Before the plague. Remember when the water was turned to blood? Remember when the frogs came? There was a warning: let my people go, or else. This time, there's no warning, it just happens. And that's the way God works. You see, we think that God has to, because of his great love for man, must warn them. Well, you know what? He has warned them. He has told us the wages of sin is death. That's just the warning that God gives. You see, Pharaoh is about to be broken beyond remedy because he keeps hardening his heart against the voice of God.

There's coming a time where, once again, there's not going to be a warning when the Lord enacts his judgment upon man. The Bible tells us in 2 Peter chapter 3 that our Lord's going to return like a thief in the night. How does a thief come? He doesn't warn you about his arrival. And the Bible says in 2 Peter chapter 3, verse number 10, that the day of the Lord is going to come like a thief in the night.

The judgment of God will come upon people suddenly, and the Lord Jesus Christ will return. And we. Need to be ready for the return of the Lord. But I want you to note that God has given man due warning of his return. For in 2 Peter chapter 3, it says this: verse number 3: Know this, first of all, that in the last days, mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming?

For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation. For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago.

And the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with Water, but the present heavens and earth by his word are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. The Bible says they have been warmed.

You see, man has had ample warning because of the global flood. The flood proves that the day of judgment is going to come. And that's God's warning upon mankind. Yet when he comes like a thief in the night, there'll be no warning. Just like for Pharaoh in this day, there was no warning. Not only was there no warning. In this plague. Number two, notice that there was no worship during the plague.

No worship during the plague. Remember, Egypt would not allow Israel to worship the Lord, to go their three days' journey into the wilderness to worship the Lord. So what God was doing was en Egypt not to worship. You see the priest in those days, the Egyptian priest, would shave his body. Because that's how they would become pure and clean. And they would shave all the hair on their body from the top of their head. to the bottom of their toes in order to perform their rituals in their worship. Well, with all these these gnat Surrounding them, encompassing them, they were unable to shave.

Why? Because of the sores and the infections they would have all over their body. So now they were impure to worship, so therefore they could no longer worship. And God's little joke on them was that, listen, I'm the true God. You must worship me in spirit and in truth. And if you're not going to do it my way, you can't worship your way. And God stopped them from their own pagan worship. But isn't it interesting that what the Egyptian priests did is a lot like the world does today? That their cleanliness, their purity was all external.

Number three, there was no witchcraft in the plague. No witchcraft in the plague either. What did the magician say? This is the finger of God. What happened? They were unable to duplicate what they had tried through trickery to duplicate in the previous plagues. And so there would be no witchcraft in this plague, would there? Because God reigns. Supreme. Thinking about this this past week, I was reminded once again of the plagues in the book of Revelation. And each week I try to draw the parallel between the two to show you that what happened locally is going to happen globally, and the response is going to be the same.

Turn with me to uh Revelation chapter 6. Revelation chapter 6. Listen to this. Six seal is broken. Verse 12. And I looked, when he broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. And the sky was split apart. Like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the commanders, and the rich, and the strong, and every slave, and every free man. Hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, and they said to God, is that what it says? No, it says they said to the mountains and to the rocks. Fall on us and hide us from who? The pres of him who sits on the thr. And from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand? See, they know it's God, but they won't repent of their sin.

Not knowing that their cry to die ushers them into the presence of Almighty God to be judged and condemned for all eternity. See? And you know, the Bible says that one day every knee is going to bow, every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, right?

To the glory of God the Father. Every tongue is going to do it. Everybody's going to confess the Lordship of Christ. The problem is: if you don't confess the Lordship of Christ this side of the grave, you still will on the other side of the grave. You still will, because God said so. But the problem is, as you confess His Lordship, you will do it in the fires of hell. That's the difference. That's the plague of the lice. How about the plagues of the flies? Some say it's a plague of the beetle. We don't know.

Psalm 78 says that there are various insects. Some tend to think it's a certain kind of scarab beetle that was the insect that was used to lay waste of the land. If you go and you study the archaeological digs there in Egypt, you realize that there were the symbol of this beetle on Ancient Egyptian figurines and on ancient Egyptian chests. It was a symbol of the on life of the Egyptians. It was a symbol of their God that would represent the immortality of life. And isn't it interesting that God would once again show him The supreme life giver by showing them that the God they worship only produces death.

Not life. Notice there'll be several things about this great plague of flies or insects or beetles or whatever you want to call it.

We don't know what Necessarily, these things are. All we know is that the land of Egypt was laid waste. The first thing I want you to notice is the dedication before the plague.

The dedication before the plague. Now we're going to go back to a warning. God says to Moses, rise up early.

I want you to go down into the water. I want you to meet Pharaoh. And I want you to tell him, thus sa the Lord. Now, remember, before the whole plague thing began, Moses on several occasions would debate with the Lord concerning his responsibility and what he was supposed to be doing. But throughout the plagues, I want you to notice the dedication that Moses had to his God.

The first thing I want you to notice is that he had to get up. He had to get up. Rise up early, Moses. You see, you got to get up. People don't like to get up. You got to get up because the evil man gets up. See, Pharaoh's already up. Pharaoh's already going to be down there. You meet him down there. The world likes to get up because they serve their God. They want to worship the God of the Almighty dollar. So they got to get up early to get to wherever it is they got to go to get whatever it is they want to get.

And God says to Moses, Moses, you've got to get up. You've got to rise up early in the morning. You know, one of the ways we demonstrate our dedication to God is by getting up. The mark of dedication is to be able to stand against those who oppose you, right? And that's what Moses had to do. He had to stand against the evil man. The mark of a dedicated man is that he sits up, he stands up, and he speaks up. He speaks up. You go to Pharaoh and you say, Thus saith the Lord. And Moses would learn to stand for his God and to speak for his God with great strength and great wisdom because he would give Pharaoh, the words of God.

He wasn't going to give him his own wisdom. He wasn't going to say what he wanted to say. He was going to say what God wanted him to say. Thus saith the Lord. And Moses showed his dedication to his God. The second thing I want you to see.

Is the decision about the plague. You tell him, Thus saith the Lord, Moses, let my people go, they may serve me. For if you will not let my people go, I will send a swarm of insects on you, and on your servants, and on your people, and into your houses, and the houses of the Egyptians. shall be full of swarms of insects and also the ground on which they dwell. Pharaoh, you have a decision to make. Either let my people go, just like I said, let them do exactly what I said, or else. Or else, this is what's going to happen.

You know, that's the decision you had to make. Thinking about that, I realized that God gives us decisions to make, doesn't He? Let me give you a couple of examples.

Start with me in the book of Revel, second chapter. Book of Revelation, second chapter, Church of Ephesus.

Remember, in the book of Revelation, there are seven churches that were add. God wrote to seven churches, seven churches that are representative of all the churches that have ever existed in all the ages of the church age. And they are literal churches, real true churches in Asia Minor. And God wrote this first letter to the church of Ephesus, who was sound in doctrine, the church started by the Apostle Paul, then pastored by young Timothy.

Good, godly men who led, and they were strong in the truth. They never wavered from the truth. But listen to what the Lord says in verse number five, or verse number four. I have this against you, that you have left your first love.

Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen and repent, and do the deeds you did at first, or else.

Or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place unless you rep. God said to the church of Ephesus, This is what you need to do. If you don't do it, I'm going to remove your lampstand. I going to remove your light. I'm going to remove your testimony. There is no Christian church in Ephesus today because God was true to His Word. He removed their light. They had left their first love, their passionate desire for their God.

Look at the church of Pergamon, a church that had compromised the truth. And it says this in verse number 16: Repent, therefore, what's the next two words? Or else. Or else I am coming to you, Pergamum, quickly, and I will make war against them, that is the false teachers in your assembly, with the sword of my mouth. You need to make sure you deal with the error in your church because if you don't, I'm coming to you and I'm going to deal with you and I'm going to deal with them as well. You see, God says, listen, you've got to follow me.

I want a pure church. He says, I want a holy church. That's important, isn't it? We read that, we think, well, we got to take note of that. We don't want to lose our first love.

We don't want to compromise our staying for God. We don't want to let the church be infiltrated with people who are teaching a different doctrine and will lead people astray and just accept them. Because they have a certain testimony. No, they've got to be committed to the truth of God. God says, I'm coming quickly.

Same thing He said to Pharaoh: Pharaoh, this is what you need to do: let my people go. Or else, he didn't make a decision, didn't he? Unfortunately, he didn't make the right decision. Number three, I want you to notice with me the division during the plague.

Listen to what God says. Verse 22. But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen where my people are living, so that no swarms of insects will be there. In order that you may know that I, the Lord, am in the midst of the land, and I will put a division between my people and your people. Tomorrow, this sign shall occur. Notice, four times from verses 20 down through verse number 23, God says, These are my people.

I mean, Pharaoh thought they were his people. Remember? God says, I'm going to put a division between my people and your people.

I'm going to set them aside. I'm going protect them. You know why I'm going to do that, Pharaoh? So, you will know that I am the Lord of the land. I'm going to show you that what I'm going to do is so specific, so unique. So pertinent to just this group of people that I'm going to take my people, I'm going to draw a dividing line, and they will not be touched with this pl. You know why God calls his people to be separate from the world? So the world will see that their God rules supreme. That's why God calls us to be different, separate.

And I wonder how many times we kind of cross over that line of distinction to try to make ourselves a lot like the world so that when people look at us, they don't know a difference.

They can't see the dividing line. We're just like everybody else. But God wanted to make sure that there was a distinct difference because Pharaoh needed to see that our Lord was truly Lord of the land, as well as the insects, as well as Pharaoh. The next thing I want you to see is. It's the devastation and the destruction from the plague. What's it say? Then the Lord did so, and there came a great swarm, came great swarms of insects into the house of Pharaoh and the houses of his servants, and the land was laid waste.

Because the swarms of insects in all the land of Egypt. Wow. Sin is devastating. It lays waste everything in its path. And the land was destroyed by these beetles, these flies, these various insects that came upon the land of Egypt. When I think about that and the effects of sin and how it lays waste everything in its path, sin is never any good. Satan makes you think it's good. He wants you to think it's the best thing, it's the right thing, it's the feel-good thing, but it always destroys. It always does.

The wages of sin is Death. How much clearer can it be? The penalty for sin is to be separated from fellowship and communion with God. That's a payment. That's a payment that is just too great to pay yourself. So that leads us to the next point, and that is the denunciation in the plague. Moses says to Pharaoh, Let me tell you something, Pharaoh.

In verse number 29, I'm going out from you, and I shall make supplication to the Lord, that the swarms of insects may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants. and from his people tomorrow, only do not let Pharaoh deal deceitfully again in not letting the people go to sacrifice the Lord. See the rebuke? P, listen.

See the strength of Moses? Moses on the back side of the desert for 40 years and being that lowly shepherd. Not wanting to necessarily be used by God, but was prompted by God, and he saw the hand of God upon him, is now being used of God. He says, Pharaoh, listen to me. Listen carefully. Don't deal deceitfully again. Oh, I love that. That's so good. Moses is so strong. He's standing firm. You're a deceiver, Pharaoh. You're a liar. Don't let it happen again. Oh, I love that. And then here's Moses standing against the Pharaoh of Egypt.

Don't deal deceitfully. Okay, okay. Whatever you say, Moses, whatever you say, just supplicate for me. Just pray to God for me. Just do something. That's what Moses did. Moses is the man of mercy. He is the man of mercy. He was so merciful. He was so kind. But he rebuked the leader of Egypt. With great forthrightness. Don't do it again. Don't do it again. Which leads us to our last point. The deliverance from the plague. Listen to what it says. So Moses went out from Pharaoh and made supplication to the Lord, and the Lord did as Moses asked.

And removed the swarms of insects from Pharaoh and his servants and from his people. And what's it say? Not one remained. Now, I want you to notice a couple of things about this deliverance.

First of all, it was a delayed deliverance. Because earlier in the text, Moses says, Tomorrow this will happen. I think that's kind of funny. Tomorrow. Tomorrow. Remember? in our last plague? What did Pharaoh say? Beseech the Lord tomorrow about the frogs. Not now, tomorrow, as he's making sure he doesn't step on any of the frogs there in the palace. Okay, just just how about tomorrow? So Moses comes back and says Tomorrow. Tomorrow it'll happen. You can see Pharaoh now, man. Tomorrow, what do you mean tomorrow?

I'm about right now, man. Right now, Moses, why tomorrow? You know, he's doing all this kind of stuff and trying to get rid of all these insects and all these gnats and everything that's around him. Tomorrow. Tomorrow. You know, sometimes the consequences of sin, they kind of linger on for times, don't they? Kind of hang around. That's not too pleasing, is it? But even though they might hang around for a while, notice the deliverance was absolutely com.

There wasn't one left. They were all gone. Every one of them. You know, that reminds me. That when we present the gospel, we tell people that Jesus Christ delivers from every sin completely. He doesn't deliver us from just some of our sins. He delivers us from all of our sins. What does the Bible say? The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1:7. And as we examine the deliverance of this plague, we realize that what God is doing is picturing once again that when He is besieged.

He freely delivers from the plagues of sin. And we need to understand that in our lives. Those of us who are here today, maybe you're born again and you love the Lord and yet you feel the sting and the stain of sin. God says, I have forgiven you of that sin.

I have cleansed you from all unrighteousness, all sin. You are pure and holy before me. I treated my Son as if he committed all your sins. And now I'm going to treat you as if you are my son without sin. That is the deliverance of God when He saves us from our sins. And if you're here today and you've never bowed to the Lordship of Christ and submitted to His kingship and asked Him to cleanse you from all your sin, you need to do so. You need to do so. While there is still time and while the warning is still fresh, rep or else.

It 's the way it is. Follow God, honor Him, serve Him, live for Him. Oh, there are so many valuable lessons. The plagues. May God give us grace to understand them and apply them to our lives. Let's pray.