Old Testament: Exo 8.20–24

To read the Bible in a year, read Exodus 7–8 on January 24, In the year of our Lord Christ 2023

By Don Ruhl 

Pharaoh refused to let Israel go to serve the Lord their God. Therefore, Moses prepared Pharaoh for a fourth plague, promising that the Lord would send flies on the Egyptians, if Pharaoh would not let Israel go: 

And the LORD said to Moses, “Rise early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh as he comes out to the water. Then say to him, Thus says the LORD: Let My people go, that they may serve Me. Or else, if you will not let My people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants, on your people and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they stand. And in that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, in which My people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there, in order that you may know that I am the LORD in the midst of the land. I will make a difference between My people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall be.” And the LORD did so. Thick swarms of flies came into the house of Pharaoh, into his servants’ houses, and into all the land of Egypt. The land was corrupted because of the swarms of flies.

– Exodus 8.20–24 

Pharaoh was so stubborn that he was willing to endure swarms of flies as long as he could keep the children of Israel in Egypt, or at least he thought he could endure it. 

It got so bad that later he asked Moses to make the flies go away. 

Pharaoh had a choice to make: Either keep Israel and the swarms of flies, or let Israel go and be free of flies! 

Questions: 

• Has a fly bitten you? 
• Why do flies buzzing around us irritate us? 

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Don preaches with the Savage Street Church of Christ in Grants Pass, Oregon. 

Listen to his sermons here: GrantsPassChurchOfChrist.com