टीका वर्तमान में केवल अंग्रेज़ी में उपलब्ध है। हिन्दी अनुवाद प्रगति पर है।
Exodus 8 — When God Begins to Separate
Three more plagues. The frogs come up from the river; the magicians imitate; Pharaoh asks Moses to intercede and promises release, then hardens his heart when the frogs are removed. The lice the magicians cannot produce — they confess "this is the finger of God." Then the flies — and God begins to put a separation between the Egyptians and Israel.
“I will put a division between my people and thy people: tomorrow shall this sign be.”
— Exodus 8:22-23
- v.1-15 The plague of frogs; Pharaoh asks intercession then hardens
- v.16-19 The plague of lice; "this is the finger of God"
- v.20-32 The plague of flies; division between Goshen and Egypt
The pattern named. Relief from suffering, hardening of heart. This is the cycle Pharaoh repeats through the plagues — and that countless human hearts repeat in personal trials.
Job's wife told him to curse God and die (Job 2:9). Some respond to suffering by hardening. Pharaoh shows the other side — when the suffering eases, the same heart hardens again. Both responses miss the lesson.
The finger of God. Even Pharaoh's own magicians, who had imitated the first two plagues, confess they cannot do this one. The lice — small, individual, multiplying everywhere — were beyond their counterfeit ability.
Jesus would later cast out demons and say, if I with the finger of God cast out devils (Luke 11:20). The same phrase. The same power. Recognized by enemies in Exodus, exercised by Christ in the Gospels.
God begins to draw a line between Israel and Egypt. The plagues fall on Egyptians; the same air, the same land, but His people are exempted.
The principle of separation runs through Scripture. The world and the people of God live in the same geography but under different protections. Revelation 9:4 — the locusts of judgment cannot harm those who have the seal of God in their foreheads.
Pharaoh's first compromise. Sacrifice — but not too far away. The enemy of souls always wants to compromise the call.
The four compromises of Satan in Exodus: (1) here, don't go too far; (2) chapter 10:11, only the men go; (3) 10:24, leave your flocks behind; (4) finally, full release at midnight. The pattern of partial surrender vs. full obedience runs through every believer's life.
Watch for the compromise that says "not too far." The world will allow you to be religious as long as you do not get serious about it. Pharaoh said sacrifice — but stay close to Egypt. The four-staged compromises of Exodus are still the strategy. Notice each as it comes. Refuse each as it comes. Obey fully.
The same finger of God that touched Egypt with judgment touched dirt with creation, wrote on stones at Sinai, and in the Gospels cast out demons through Christ. Jesus is the embodiment of the finger of God — the precise application of divine power that the Egyptian magicians could not match and the demons could not resist.
Pharaoh repents while the plague is on him. He asks for intercession, promises release. The pattern of crisis-conversion that rarely sticks.
Many a man has said the same kind of prayer in his crisis and forgotten it as soon as deliverance came. Conversion under pressure is not the same as conversion of the will. Pharaoh proves it by the verse that follows.