Gnats and Flies, Oh My!

June 23, 2009, 4:41 pm by dc-agape.

Exodus Chapter 8:15-32

Now the next two plagues happen over the next two days after the frogs have died.  The first one, without even confronting the Pharaoh, starts with Aaron turning all the dust in Egypt into gnats.  For some odd reason the Pharaoh’s magicians attempt to duplicate this.  Shouldn’t they be attempting to alleviate this?  Either way they fail, proving that this plague is truly supernatural…or not.  What happens to bloating dead animal bodies, frogs in this case?  The decomposing bodies (in heaps) first attract gnats and other small rapid lifespan creatures.  Gnats would begin to breed rapidly as the frogs decompose, especially if pools of water were near the “heaps”.  But also, within 4-10 days flies would have already laid eggs in the frog’s bodies and those maggots would begin to turn into adult flies.  Hence, both the two plagues that follow the death of the frogs would be natural occurrences without any help from a supernatural being.

But this is not the end of this plague.  YHWH promises that the Israelites will be spared the flies but not the frogs or the gnats.  This could easily be done.  All the Israelites needed to do was get rid of the dead decomposing frog bodies!  Remove them and the flies will follow the bodies.  So all this tells us is that the Israelites were more worried about sanitation and hygiene than the Egyptians. 

This plague of flies was worse than the gnats.  In fact, it ruined the entire land of Egypt.  I’m not sure that much was left to ruin after the water became undrinkable, which would have destroyed the crops and live stock.  And if the water shortage didn’t do it the dead frogs were certainly a health hazard!  Adding the flies was just an additional blow to and already weakened community. 

Pharaoh again summons Moses and Aaron.  This time he tells them it is ok to go and make their sacrifices.  But now it is Moses that rejects the offer.  He requires that the people be allowed to travel out of Egypt for a three day trip one-way and then it would be assumed that it would be another three days back.  Or at least this is the little white lie that Moses and Aaron tell the Pharaoh.  Moses again asks YHWH to lift the plague and surprisingly, walaa, the flies are gone!  Well, this only allows the Pharaoh to harden his heart again.  But it really isn’t the Pharaoh that has done this.  I have already repeated this by I will repeat after every post on this sequence of plagues.  YHWH hardened Pharaoh’s heart.  Pharaoh had no freewill.  YHWH intended all of this to happen.  YHWH was punishing innocent people for something he had planned for generations:

Gen 15:13-14 Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.  But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterword they will come out with great possessions.

Exodus 4:21 The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do.  But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.

Everything that happens was planned and orchestrated by YHWH.  All the suffering, all the pain, all these events were non-negotiable.  Not due to the sins of the Egyptians, but due to an arbitrary evil, hateful, supernatural being.  Whoever said we have freewill was lying!

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