Imagine all the frogs in your hometown deciding they would prefer your home over theirs.
Slowly the Nile returned to normal, but God was not finished. Another deity worshiped was Heqet, an Egyptian goddess of fertility, who grotesquely had the body of a woman but the head of a frog. When my wife and I visited the famed step pyramid at Saqqara, we saw in that vast burial ground little frogs embalmed and laid in state like pharaohs. Well then, said the Lord, what do you say if I fill the land with your gods! “The river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into your house, into your bedroom, on your bed, into the houses of your servants, on your people, into your ovens, and into your kneading bowls” (Ex 8:3). Yes, gods in their bed and gods in their bread! Imagine having a little Heqet staring out at you from your morning biscuit. If the bloody river showed the fatality in idolatry, surely the frogs showed its futility. No one from the greatest to the least avoided the plague. Yes, “on your bed,” Pharaoh! Again, the magicians madly added to the frog-arama; they could add frogs but only God could remove them. Pharaoh, oddly, was uncomfortable with so many little frog-gods underfoot: “Entreat the Lord,” he said, “that He may take away the frogs from me and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may sacrifice to the Lord” (v 8). P.S. Don’t get your hopes up! But now listen to this. Moses said, You tell me when to remove the frogs. And Pharaoh said, “Tomorrow.” One more night with the frogs! It is man’s greatest asset and greatest liability that he can get used to just about anything—including going to bed under the judgment of God. Imagine sleeping one heartbeat from hell! And in the morning? “When Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart.”