Exodus 8:6-10
And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt. 7 And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt. 8 Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, Intreat the LORD, that he may take away the frogs from me, and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may do sacrifice unto the LORD. 9 And Moses said unto Pharaoh, Glory over me: when shall I intreat for thee, and for thy servants, and for thy people, to destroy the frogs from thee and thy houses, that they may remain in the river only? 10 And he said, Tomorrow. And he said, Be it according to thy word: that thou mayest know that there is none like unto the LORD our God.
Johnny Flanagan from Pampa, Texas wrote the following lyrics:
One more night with them stinkin’ frogs,
One more night in sin,
I had a terrible time, again last night,
But I just gotta’ do it again
It is truly amazing how old Pharaoh would plead for Moses and Aaron to intercede to the Lord to send the frogs back into the river, then, when Moses asked when he should take care of that, Pharaoh answered, in the morning!
Goodness, if you had frogs in your soup, in your bed, on the floorboard of your chariot, in your bathtub, in your closet, jumping around on your kids, wouldn’t you want to be rid of them, like… yesterday???
Funny, how it is with sin. It is pleasurable…for a season. We know we should deal with it and get it out of our lives. However, perhaps another day of procrastination might be ok.
I love the words of Moses when Pharaoh first asked him to deal with the frogs. “Well, glory over me!” was his response. How that glory must have turned to disbelief when Pharaoh added, “tomorrow.”
Why wallow in the pig pen another day? Why set in the stench of iniquity another minute? If we are caught up in sin, let Jesus cleanse it this moment so we can get back to living in victory.
If you are presently bound in iniquity, why don’t you just “First John One Nine” that sin and get right with the One Who deeply desires your fellowship once again. Don’t spend another night in sin.
Tomorrow!
We are famous for what we are going to do tomorrow, God says, “Today!” The Holy Spirit says, “Today!” In Hebrews 3:7-8, “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today, when you hear His voice, do not harden your heats as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness.’”
Yes, God says “today,” but we say “tomorrow.’ We preach to people about making a full surrender of themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ. As it states in Hebrews 12:1-2, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
We exhort people and we plead with people, “Today, give your life to Christ. Make full surrender of your life, your talents, your money.” What is the response that people give to a plea like that? Most people say, “I know I should. I’m planning to do it sometime. Maybe I will do it tomorrow.”
We plead with backsliders, who have lost their first love, who have drifted away from God, who are living in sin away from the fellowship of the church, “Return to the Lord. Come and seek God’s forgiveness.” They say, “I know I should. I’m going to do it sometime. Maybe tomorrow.”
I want to give a few reasons why you must not spend one more night with the frogs. First of all, the frogs may not leave tomorrow. You remember that story in the Bible about the rich young ruler, who came to Jesus, “Good Master, what good things shall I do to have eternal life?” Jesus told him all the commandments and he said, “Oh, I’ve obeyed all these from my childhood up. What do I lack?” Jesus said, “Just one thing. You go get rid of your riches and give them to the poor and then you come and follow me.” This man was very wealthy and he loved his riches more than he loved God, so he turned and. walked away sorrowfully. “Tomorrow I’ll do it!” But, we never see that rich, young ruler again. The frogs did not leave when tomorrow came.
The second reason I want to suggest that you must not spend one more night with the frogs is because something worse may come in place of the frogs. That certainly happened to Pharaoh and the Egyptians. After the frogs there was lice, after the lice there were flies, after the flies there were locusts, after locusts there were boils, after boils there was fire and darkness and finally death; the death of the first born of every family in Egypt. As bad as sin is something worse than sin is coming. That is the Judgment Day.
I want to give you a third reason why you must not spend one more night with the frogs. That is because tomorrow may not come! Tomorrow may not come, so I plead with you. Not one more night with the frogs, but today if you hear God’s voice harden not your hearts, repent of your sins, come to Jesus and accept and obey him that you may be saved while there’s yet time.
Here are two other interesting things in this chapter. When Moses and Aaron first caused the frogs to appear, so did Pharaoh’s magicians (v7). Think about that for a moment. Frogs were the problem, not the solution. Workers of evil could “miraculously” create more of the problem, but they could not create a solution.
Second, once the frogs were dead, piled into heaps, and the stench filled the land, Pharaoh had a change of heart. “When Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart” (v15). “It still smells really bad,” he must have said to himself, “but the worse is over. So what do I need with all this God stuff? I’ve got it under control.”
Didn’t Pharaoh act just like a lot of us do today? We want to continue living in sin for just one more night. We turn to the world and ungodly friends for solutions to our problems but only get more of the same. We’re willing to put up with some stench in our lives as long as we think we can still manage it. We’ll turn to God to get us through our immediate crisis but quickly forget Him once it is past.
We can choose repentance or we can choose another night with the frogs. Which will it be?