‘The Lord then spoke to Moses: Speak to Aaron: Stretch out your hand with your staff over the streams, the canals, and the ponds, and make frogs overrun the land of Egypt. So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. But the magicians did the same by their magic arts and made frogs overrun the land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Pray to the Lord to remove the frogs from me and my people, and I will let the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.” Moses answered Pharaoh, “Please designate for me the time when I am to pray for you and your servants and your people, to get rid of the frogs from you and your houses. They will be left only in the Nile.” “Tomorrow,” he said. Then Moses replied, “It will be as you have said, so that you may know that there is none like the Lord, our God. The frogs will leave you and your houses, your servants and your people; they will be left only in the Nile.” After Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh’s presence, Moses cried out to the Lord on account of the frogs that he had inflicted on Pharaoh; and the Lord did as Moses had asked. The frogs died off in the houses, the courtyards, and the fields. Heaps of them were piled up, and the land stank. But when Pharaoh saw there was a respite, he became obstinate and would not listen to them, just as the Lord had said (Ex. 8:1-11).’
God showed that He was present in Egypt to protect the Hebrews by sending frogs everywhere in Egypt except where the Hebrews were; “I will send a plague of frogs over all your territory. The frogs will come up over you and your people and all your servants (Ex. 7:27,29).” Hequet (Heqet), the Egyptian goddess of fertility, water, and renewal is represented in the form of a frog. An abundance of frogs could be another way God showed His superiority over the Egyptian gods. Pharaoh's magicians also made frogs come up out the Egyptian waters. However, it was Moses who Pharaoh asked to pray to his God to remove the frogs. Moses asked Pharaoh to tell him the exact time he wanted the frogs removed so that Pharaoh would know that the Hebrew God had complete control. Moses petitioned God on Pharaoh’s behalf but once the frogs died, Pharaoh became obstinate again.
Almighty God, we are your children and in you we live and move and have our being. We reach out to you in our time of need, and you come to our aid but we quickly forget to give you thanks and praise when our trouble is past. Grant us the grace to be constant in prayer and to be filled with sincere gratitude for your mercy towards us. This we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen!
Reference:
Raymond E. Brown, Joseph A. Fitzmyer, & Roland E. Murphy, (Eds.). (1990, 1968). The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentis Hall, Inc.
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