seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Exodus 8:16 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the ground,’ and throughout the land of Egypt the dust will become gnats.” 17 They did this, and when Aaron stretched out his hand with the staff and struck the dust of the ground, gnats came on people and animals. All the dust throughout the land of Egypt became gnats. 18 But when the magicians tried to produce gnats by their secret arts, they could not.
Since the gnats were on people and animals everywhere, 19 the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart was hard and he would not listen, just as the Lord had said.
Here's the link to the Commentary.Before I get into the verses, I have an issue. My commentary is based on the KJV. The commentary says these critters were lice, not gnats. So, I had to find out about the difference between lice and gnats.
Gnats is a term commonly used to refer to a few kinds of flies. There is no specific gnat species. Gnats are usually one of the following:
With all the dead frogs lying all over the place, I'm surprised they didn't have to battle the maggots. But the NIV Bible says it was gnats. The KJV Bible says it's lice. The biggest difference is, gnats fly and lice don't. Both are annoying! According to a search I did, lice and maggots can be misdiagnosed. There were frogs everywhere. The frogs devoured all the stuff in the water that made all the water in Egypt turn to blood, and the frogs thrived and took over Egypt. When they ran out of food, they starved to death. Before the dead frogs could dry up, the maggots [gnats] or lice took over. The maggots [gnats] or lice were there to devour the dead frogs.
Oh, I'm itchy just writing this. The stench of all those rotten frogs from the second plague, along with the stench of any of the bloody thick water, must have been gagging nausea. Pharaoh had to smell it!
One of the questions I've had is how the magicians could duplicate the water turning to blood, even in a wooden vase in the house, or how the magicians were able to cultivate super frogs. Well, I had a new idea about that this morning. They figured out that the source of the plague was everywhere and all they had to do was capture some and claim it as their duplication! Fake news! That's how they did it.
Maggots, gnats, or lice would come out of the frog. They couldn't duplicate that in front of Pharaoh. They had to give up trying. The gnats themselves would have bothered the magicians so much they couldn't think, let alone come up with a way to duplicate the work of God.
Egypt was black with gnats!!!!
This is from the commentary.
Stretch out your rod: This plague came unannounced. This time God did not show Pharaoh the mercy of a warning and an invitation to repentance.
We must never think God is unfair when He does not show mercy. If someone were totally fair, they would never show mercy.
Struck the dust of the earth, and it became lice on man and beast: This plague struck at the heart of all Egyptian worship, especially at their priests. The Egyptian priesthood was extremely careful about hygiene and ritual cleansing; an infestation of lice made them unable to worship their gods.
The plague of lice was also upon every beast. The gods of Egypt would not receive the sacrifice of lice-infested animals, so this stopped their sacrificial system.
I'm itchy all over just thinking about gnats everywhere. It's worse when I think it might be lice or maggots, then I want to throw up! No wonder the palace magicians couldn't duplicate it. They were too busy swatting or swiping! Oh, and the smell... the smell of billions or trillions of dead frogs.... oh gross!
I don't know which is right... the KJV or the NIV... Gnats can fly, lice can't. Maggots can't fly but they turn into flies. The way nature goes... first the food, then the animal, then the maggots, then the flies.
In my humble, uneducated, googling old lady with an online Bible, opinion; it's more likely the gnats were not gnats. IMHO it's more likely the lice were not lice. It makes more sense that the next plague was the tiny flies produced by the maggots that developed on and in the frogs.
So... I am going to call this the plague of maggots, lice, and gnats.... because at one time or another... They all had a party on the frogs.
It's natural... so, it must be God's work! Even the palace magicians admitted it. It must be God's work.
Plague 3... Maggots, lice, or gnats
Now I'm off to take a shower... I feel like I have to wash these verses off!