A Night With The Frogs

We Truly Appreciate Bro. Freeman for this wonderful essay and response to an intriguing, controversial and puzzling question. For more infromation about Bro. Freeman click on his picture for a bio. To view more essays and lessons by Graylon click on his subject title(s) below.

A Night With The Frogs

Ex. 8:1-15

The plagues that God visited upon Egypt created an ecological nightmare. The Nile and its related waterways, the air over Egypt, the flora and fauna of the region, and many other natural systems were degraded by the upset of the region’s ecological balance. God was visibly demonstrating to Pharaoh and the Egyptians that He was indeed God and that beside Him there was no other.

But have you ever considered that when God was plaguing the land of Egypt and in the midst of that second disastrous plague; the plague of frogs, that when Pharaoh saw that the frogs were everywhere, and they were. There were frogs in their ovens and in their beds; there were frogs in their kneading bowls and in their food. There were frogs hopping and croaking and being a general nuisance all over the land. Moses had Aaron to stretch forth his hand over all the waters of Egypt, and all the waters; the ponds, and lakes, the rivers and streams brought forth frogs in abundance. The bible says that they covered the land. Pharaoh in the hardness of his heart called for his magicians and they too brought forth frogs from the water as well. Now it would appear that if you are in misery concerning frogs that the last thing that you would want would be more frogs. If Pharaoh wanted to demonstrate that he had some power to match God’s power then why didn’t he have his magicians to cause the frogs that were already hopping everywhere to be cast back into the waters only? He only succeeded in intensifying his undone condition.

But when he finally realized that this was indeed the hand of God and his magicians had failed miserably to alter the situation, he indeed called for Moses and Aaron and said: “Entreat 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 sacrifice to the Lord.” And Moses said: “Glory over me, (that is to say, except the honor of telling me when you want the frogs to be gone from the land and to dwell in the waters only).

And just as interesting and equally intriguing as it was when instead of having his magicians attempt to drive away the frogs initially, Pharaoh says: “Tomorrow.” Now why in the world would this man want to spend another night with the frogs? Moses said, so be it, according to they word, that you may know that there is none like the Lord our God.

A night with the frogs.

I don’t understand what gets into people sometimes, they see the way of righteousness and come to understand the truth, but delay and postpone and choose to spend another dreadful night with the frogs.

Back in the day, people used to load their garbage into their wagons and take it to the nearest dump site. Forgetfulness meant that one either made a second trip or stockpiled their trash until the next convenient opportunity came around to dispose of it. I recall reading something some time ago where the writer described worship - - both personal and corporate - - as an occasion for spiritual “garbage disposal,” as well as a time of celebration and praise. And there is a valuable truth to be gleamed from this analogy.

When I come to worship, I come with both gratitude and garbage, that is to say I have a few frogs hanging on me, frogs that I have been putting off getting rid of. When I come to worship I am encouraged to contribute my gratitude and my offering, but most of the time I trudge back home with my garbage, my frogs still hidden in the closets and basements of my life.

But if worship accomplishes its true purpose, then it also must provide me with an opportunity to regularly dump my sins and failures, my spiritual garbage and all my frogs. If I understand the bible correctly, he wants to collect it all and take it off my hands and get it out of my life.

The tragic truth of the matter, however, is that sin is a virtually ignored category. Many people feel that dealing with sin actually detracts from worship. You hear it said: “Preaching on sin sends out such negative signals.” “You know that people won’t come if they hear too much about their failures and sins. It’s too negative. You’ve got to keep the gospel positive if you want to reach people today.”

There was a cartoon in the paper that depicted a prophet figure decked out in sackcloth and ashes; he was carrying a sign which read: “Resist Temptation.” A rather seedy looking character walked up, looked at the sign, and said: “Personally, I’m not interested in resisting temptation right now; I’m just trying to find some.’

Of course, there are some sins which are acceptable - - indeed, required to be periodically addressed during Sunday morning worship. These are the “cultural” sins – the sins which generally offend every one’s sense of decency and good taste. For instance, almost everybody agrees that drug addition and abuse, spousal and child abuse, pornography are sinful but they are not generally the sins of the people who are in the church. And that is what makes them safe to deal with on Sunday mornings.

But I have another way of classifying sin: Crazy, Mean and just plain Stupid. Pharaoh was being crazy, mean and just plain stupid when he opted to spend yet another night with the frogs.

Stupid sins are things you do that hurt yourself and others - - usually out of ignorance. You do something and say afterwards, “Man, that was dumb!” being smart about what is good for you is important. But some things are simply dumb - - from alcohol and drug abuse to laziness and procrastination.

Crazy sins are things you do that you know will hurt you, but you go ahead and do them anyway. For example; you lie, knowing that sooner or later you are going to be found out. Or you get yourself tangled up in some extra marital situation, some kind of illicit relationship, knowing that there is absolutely no future to it and that there is only bad news and empty dreams ahead. It’s crazy, but you find yourself involved nonetheless.

Mean sins are just that: mean. They are what we used to call being ornery. We willfully inflict pain on other people, gossip’s sharp tongue, greed’s cold heart, envy’s evil eye, malice’s treacherous deeds, and other acts of personal cruelty like prejudice and bias.

These are the sins – this is the spiritual garbage - - these are the frogs you and I actually bring to worship with us every Sunday. We may be dressed in our Sunday best, all washed and scrubbed, all smiling and friendly. But we are not as pure as we like to think we are, there may be one or two frogs that we have spent the night with.

Worship is supposed to help us admit that. Worship is supposed to keep us tied to the facts about ourselves: the fact of our sins, our infidelity, our hypocrisy, our falsehood, all of which makes worship so desperately important for our survival and the survival of our faith.

Occasionally, someone will confess that even though they know that worship is the most important thing a Christian can do, it’s not all that important for them. “I don’t come like I should,” they will confess, “I get bored so easily in worship.” “I just can’t keep my mind focused and attentive.” “I can’t concentrate on the prayers and I can’t get into the hymns and the sermons don’t make any sense to me.” “I feel so guilty about it. Tell me, preacher, what can I do?”

Let me tell you what I do when that happens to me. I look for all the garbage that I forgot to dump the last time that I worshipped. I search for that frog that is still plaguing my soul.

When I have difficulty seeing God and feeling His power in my life. I usually discover that I have spent the previous night with the frogs and I need to confess my sin, repent of it and experience God’s forgiveness. When I give God my spiritual garbage regularly in worship - - as well as my praise, my gratitude and even my offerings - - then the windows are cleared up so that I can see new visions of God and the doors are thrown open wide so that I can experience the freshness of His power in my life. When I dump my spiritual garbage regularly in worship, then I feel enormous relief and release. Praise and gratitude become spontaneous - - I can’t help myself. But until I deal with my sin, until I let go of the frogs of my life, there is little joy or enthusiasm in any part of the worship experience.

Jesus died in order to relieve us from the plague of frogs that invade our lives. The Hebrew writer encourages us to cast our burdens upon Jesus because He cares for us. It is truly a call to dump all of our spiritual trash and garbage at the foot of the cross of Jesus. He offered the ultimate sacrifice for our sin on a strange, skull like hill just outside the north gate of Jerusalem. Did you know that one of the reasons that Golgotha was chosen as the place for public execution and crucifixions was because it was located next to the city garbage dump, the valley of Hinnon? It’s ironic that we’ve never really noticed that before, perhaps until now, isn’t it?

There is no need to take your garbage home with you any longer. Leave it here. He knows what to do with it.

Worship is the finest opportunity that you will ever have to experience God’s mercy and grace. He wants you to confess your sin and leave the frogs, you don’t have to spend another night with the frogs of sin. God would not have you to wallow in the despair of your own failure, nor does He seek to shame and embarrass you, He endured all that, so that we could be spared that personal agony. He’s fixed it so that you don’t have to leave this room and haul it around with you for the rest of this week, indeed for the rest of your life

So come to Him, now, and leave the frogs and all your sin right here.