The plagues are now focusing on Pharaoh. The magicians quit. The flies even know better!
Three significant changes occur during the execution of this next plague. First, with the retiring of the court magicians, Aaron moves to a secondary position. From now on, the showdown is between Pharaoh and Moses. Moses is to intercept the king when he comes to the river for his morning bath and be told the bad news. Another deity must also be unmasked as a hoax. Khepri had the head of a fly or, worse still, of a scarab beetle. He was supposed to bring the sunrise each day. How are the sunrise and a scarab related? Here it is, if you can believe it. The Egyptians saw a connection between the scarab rolling its eggs in camel dung and Khepri rolling the sun across the sky at dawn. What corrupt deception! There is a second shift with this fourth plague. This is the first miracle of separation. God said, “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” (Ex 8:22). But there is a third, subtle change. Over against the mighty works of God, Pharaoh now tries a new tactic, seeking to dictate the terms of their release. “Go, sacrifice to your God in the land,” he says (v 25), as if to say, There’s enough room for one more god here, perhaps between the crocodile god and the ibis god. Oh no, says Moses. “It is not right to do so, for we would be sacrificing the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God” (v 26). What is this abomination of which he speaks? Why, a lamb of course. And here in the West, with all our idols, sadly God’s Lamb is not appreciated any more than in ancient Egypt. But more, Jehovah would have no other gods before Him. And yet, after all this grace and truth, Pharaoh again hardened his heart.