1-7 The LORD said to Moses, "Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, `This is what the LORD says: Let my people serve me. If thou refuse, behold, I will plague all thy border with frogs, and the river shall swarm with frogs. They shall crawl up and come into thy house, and into thy chamber, and into thy bed, and into the houses of thy servants, and into thy people, and into thy ovens, and into thy pools. And the frogs shall
Upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon all thy servants, creep. And the LORD said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over the rivers, and over the streams, and over the lakes, and let frogs come up upon the land of Egypt. So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and frogs came up and covered Egypt. Then the magicians also did so with their conjuration, and caused frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt.
(1) Here we have the other miraculous sign, namely, that all the rivers and lakes in Egypt become full of frogs. For now three or four plagues follow one after the other, by which God wanted to provoke the Egyptians to repentance and correction of their sinful life, also to His fear, because all these should have been punishments of sins. First we had blood, followed by frogs, then lice, and finally evil worms. And in this chapter three plagues are described, but it is always indicated next to them why these plagues were not strong enough.
2. Moses leads God's word and the miraculous signs that follow the word. This should move you. If I had a preacher who spoke God's word, and in addition to that he gave signs so that people would see them and not want to turn away from them, would that not be evil? This happens here both: The word and the miraculous signs are there; and yet Moses creates nothing, he must have patience, and both goes back, he must not be heard, even despised.
3 But God comforted Moses by saying, "Do not be troubled by this, for it is I who hardened Pharaoh. So if God would command me his word, and give me power to do miraculous signs, and yet say that I should not do anything with them, should it not make me vain to be a preacher? And yet it must come to pass in this way. And let us still wonder how it comes about that people act and rage against the gospel in this way! It is a great sign and miracle of God that some still accept the gospel. But the fact that the world is full of sects and sectarian spirits is not to be wondered at; the world should even be hardened. For it is flesh and blood. If the gospel goes to your heart, thank God, for it is a great grace when God's word goes to your heart.
V. 8-14 Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, "Ask the LORD for me to take the frogs from me and from my people, and I will let the people sacrifice to the LORD. And Moses said, Have thou the honor, and tell me when I shall pray for thee, and for thy servants, and for thy people, that the frogs may be taken from me.
Frogs will be driven away from you and from your house, and will remain alone in the stream. He said, To morrow. And he said, As thou hast said, that thou mayest know that there is none like the LORD our God, so shall the frogs be taken from thee, and from thy house, and from thy servants, and from thy people, and shall be left alone in the river. So Moses and Aaron went from Pharaoh, and Moses cried unto the LORD for the frogs, as he had promised Pharaoh. And the LORD did as Moses had said, and the frogs died in the houses, in the courts, and in the fields. And they heaped them together, here a heap, and there a heap; and the land stank of them.
Pharaoh was not a bad man, he had his princes, councillors and nobles, who caused a lot of trouble; item his magicians or philosophers and wise people. Egypt was a beautiful, glorious kingdom. Moses, on the other hand, was a poor beggar who came from the desert. And what are Moses and Aaron compared to the wise and mighty men of Egypt? Pharaoh still humbles himself against them, which is astonishing; in addition, he humbles himself so much that he wants to pray to God for him; he pretends to be very pious.
5 Mofes accepts it as if Pharaoh were converted. For he oppresses and poses as if he fears the God that Moses preaches; he shows himself as if he recognizes the miraculous signs and accepts the word of God. And yet he is a bad boy, has in mind that he would like to kill all the children of Israel, even though he speaks kindly to Moses and Aaron, seeks their intercession, as if he were afraid of God, and as if he wanted to become pious. But he is not serious, he is a deadly enemy to them: if he could drown Moses and Aaron in a spoon, he would not take a rick to it. The eighth and twentieth Psalm, v. 3, also says: "The wicked and evil-doers speak kindly to their neighbor, but have evil in their hearts." This is the kind and nature of all hypocrites, which we must come to know. But our Lord God also knows it strangely, which is why the world errs. His purpose is to bind us to his word.
6. i have said above many times, and i say it
nor that one must separate from one another the lives of the saints and the word of God that they lead; as one otherwise separates heaven from earth. One cannot preach enough of this. I am speaking now of the good works of the holy people, as St. Peter's and Mary's, not of the work of the Lord Christ and the angels. For the devil can do nothing else but teach good works. And when we are dead, you will see how he will rage and rage against the gospel. Which neither you nor the preachers will see, even if they are wise. He always brings in works. Separate then works, or life, from words, lest ye be deceived from the word of God unto good works: for there is one lost. Therefore you say: I will not have works, except such works as are in the word of God. So shalt thou do unto him. For we are bound by the words that God speaks, which are to lead us to God. Work and profession must be, but the word of God must be more certain for us.
7 Christ hath done many works, such as I do not do. He walked on the sea [Matth. 14, 25], and made the blind see [Matth. 9, 29. Joh. 9, 6. 7]; but he did not command me to do the same. So he also left many things that he did not call me, as he did not take a wife. John the Baptist did not eat flesh, but honey [Marc. 1, 6]. Christ did not plow, nor did he ever do any trade. If any man said, What he hath left, we shall leave also: how shall that be? I would not give a farthing for it, even for the works of Christ. I will not follow, except the word be there. For I will sing with the 119th Psalm, v. 105: Eloquia tua lucerna mea ["your word is the lamp of my foot"]. Our Lord God is to speak and teach, but I am to do; that is, I am to do and keep good works, but he is the Master, he is to do through me.
(8) Moses has works here that are like what others do. If I raised a dead man to confirm the divine word, and another came and did the same, what would it be? Beaten to the ground. We do not want to do signs or anything else.
But here he has it both ways, and does it; and yet it is beaten down. For they have said, He cometh, and hath the word, and will do signs: but ours also have, and can do them. Thus it came to pass that Pharaoh was hardened, though he pretended to be righteous; but it is that no man should trust another, whether he be righteous or seem righteous.
(9) For the wicked are put to shame, and the desperate wicked often weep, and want to be pious, but it is only a pretense and not a seriousness; as Pharaoh often pretends, but the heart is far from it. For when the punishment is present, he is pious; when it is past, he goes on as before; he does not mend his ways because of his heart, but it is a forced devotion; just as we become pious in time of pestilence and theurge. But God wants the heart.
(10) I exhort you to keep the word of God pure, that I may lead you up without work. I know well what will be necessary. That you should do it for God, [for this] he will not let you bring it into your fist and preach it: 1) For by this I become the Son of God, not that I do this and leave that, but that Christ is my Lord.
(11) The devil is alfo hostile to the divine word, that he tries in all sorts of ways to find another hole. He does not mean the outward works and the fruits of the flesh, as fornication, theft, usury, though they are; but which the Holy Spirit recognizes and judges as fruits, as if his doing and preaching were directed upward to Christ. Without your work and deeds you become a Christian man. There you will be directed to Christ. There you will find figs and grapes. But they say, If thou shalt not do this or that, thou shalt be damned; and then they set before thee the holy scriptures. Then thou canst not save thyself from it,
1) Here the relation, as it seems to us, is completely senseless, therefore we have changed it. The Eisleben offers: "I know well what you want to do for God. Let (sic) him not bring it into your fist and preach it: These and these things shall you do? For" 2c. The meaning is: God does not let you preach that you should do works, so that you make a god out of them. For 2c.
You are trapped, because God's name is in your way, and you hear that Christ did it. How do you feel when you hear Christ called God? Then you are frightened.
12 Here know that Christ is presented to you in two ways. First, that he makes you the son of God, as he made Blosen God over Pharaoh. Now this is by his word, in that he proposes no work for thee to do, but he will be thine, and thou shalt be his; by his death and bloodshed he will make thee blessed.
No false apostle will preach this: No one can call Jesus Christ Lord except by the Holy Spirit [1 Cor. 12:3]. That Christ is our treasure, that is our seal. Know thou therefore first of all, that by Christ, without thy works, thou shalt come by his goodness. Oh how the devil is so hostile to preaching, and looks so askance at it, and will overthrow many of them who now think they have the gospel, the main preaching. He, Satan, wants to steal this sermon.
(14) It is not enough to say, Christ does it, therefore do it; but Christ is thine, and thou art his. This knot breaks the neck of Satan, so that the angels say in the cradle nights: "To you Christ the Savior is born", to you he is given [Luc. 2, 11.]. These words destroy and take away the devil's kingdom. Other works than iconoclasm, and others, do not harm the devil. Therefore you must first have Christ as your treasure and as the main sermon. Then you must follow his works, if you have his word. Then the highest and new commandment, namely, love, which he will not have you do before you have a new spirit, that is, you have his word and believe it. Then thou shalt not hear of him, how thou shalt break in twain an arm or a leg of a graven image, as the devil-may-care spirits preach.
V. 16-19 And the LORD said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch forth thy rod, and smite the dust of the earth, that there may be lice throughout all the land of Egypt. So they did. And Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff, and smote the dust of the earth; and there were lice upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the land of Egypt.
Dust of the land became lice all over Egypt. The magicians also did so with their conjurations, that they might bring out lice; but they could not; and the lice were both on men and beasts. Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God. But Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and hearkened not unto them: as the LORD had said.
(15) This is the third plague that comes upon the kingdom of Egypt, to punish it with lice, if the Egyptians will become more devout and turn to God.
Moses must suffer for the sake of these signs, so that his appointment does not take place; for these magicians can also do works and imitate some of the signs, except for the third sign, where they are to make lice. There the lice are such delicious animals that the devil cannot imitate them with his tools, these Egyptian magicians or black artists; there he carries and raises the tail and the head in vain. Otherwise the magicians can imitate everything, but they cannot imitate lice. What a mockery it is to this proud spirit!
Whether they were mosquitoes or bugs is not known; the Hebrews call them lice, which stuck to people and cattle, as lice are wont to do. These little creatures, as I have said, cannot imitate them, most to their comfort, lest they be put to shame. As St. Paul [2 Tim. 3, 8. 9.] also says: Jambres and others resisted Mosi; just as the false heretics are now rebelling against the truth; but they will not lead it out, but their foolishness will be revealed. They confess here that it is God's finger and power, and are disgraced by it.
(18) But why did he not do it in the first sign, but he puts them to shame in the third sign? Know, then, that God is giving the sects and the mobs a little time, so that they may have a continuance. For if we succeeded soon and subdued them, we would not have cause to call upon God. Therefore, the wicked must increase and deceive others with their false teachings, as St. Paul [1 Cor. 11:19] also says: "Error must come, so that the elect may be proven right.
would." God causes their poison to fall among some, and to be assumed to have an appearance of wanting to suppress our thing all; but in its time they fall, and many have fallen to error in their time; but later they will not lead it out. For a time they increase, green and flourish; but after that they fall to the ground. Above the lice they must become ashamed. God gives them one or two signs, but they cannot perform the third sign.
19 Therefore, notice diligently and well that Satan cannot perform all kinds of miracles and wonders; just as here, out of the devil's deceit, the devil's artists Mosi perform some miracles, but not all, since they do not bring out lice with their conjuring. For although his power is great, it is not infinite, immeasurable, as God's power and might, but it has a goal and measure. Many things are impossible for the devil. He cannot bring the dead back to life, as Christ raised Lazarum from death [Joh. 11, 43. f.]. Nor can he make old, dead, barren women fertile 2c. The devil cannot do righteous miracles and wonders, but they are deceitful miracles.
20 But why does God forbid the devil and his scales to perform miracles? He wants to test and prove the godly by the miracles of false prophets, as it is written in the fifth book of Moses on the thirteenth, v. 1 ff: "If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a miracle, and the sign or miracle comes, of which he has told you, saying, 'Let us follow other gods whom you do not know and serve them,' you shall not obey the words of such a prophet or dreamer. For the Lord your God is trying you, that he may know whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul." That is why such miracles happen to Christians as a warning.
21. secondly, God inflicts this punishment on the world because of the contempt and disrespect of the divine word, as St. Paul testifies in 2 Thess. 2, 9-12, when he says: "The future of the Antichrist will be according to the work of Satan, with all sorts of
with lying powers, signs and wonders, with all kinds of seduction to unrighteousness, among those who will be lost, because they have not accepted the love of the truth, so that they would be saved. Therefore God will send them strong errors, that they may believe the lie, that all may be judged 1) who do not believe the truth, but delight in unrighteousness."
22. But they say that it is the finger of God in the third sign. They were truly learned men, that they thus speak of the finger of God. The prophets have also seen it. But what kind of speech is this, does God have fingers? The 19th Psalm, v. 2, says: "You have made the heavens, the work of your fingers." So, by the finger of God, the Lord Christ cast out devils. The finger of God is the Holy Spirit, so God Himself interprets it. For Matthew 2) [Cap. 12, 28.] says: "By the Spirit of GOD." Lucas [Cap. 11, 20.] calls it, "By the finger of GOD." Now if they themselves call it thus, it is right, and I have not interpreted it thus. But just as a man does everything with his fingers, and when they are cut off, nothing can be grasped, done, or made, so also the Holy Spirit is God's finger, which gives gifts and presents to men's hearts and directs everything, and God does everything through the Holy Spirit, that he may be the one who directs it.
23. So they should say: Until now we have also done signs; but there we can do nothing, all here is God's finger, Moses makes lice, with our great shame. They must confess that their signs are not from God's finger [Wis. 1:8]. They say: O! the man has the spirit, is full of the spirit, has God's finger; our spirit has only a semblance, it cannot penetrate, like Moses' spirit. That is, the Holy Spirit is the one who does everything.
(24) So also, if God preaches as much as He preaches and preaches through the law, or promises through the gospel, it does not work, it is nothing; it is like an arm without hand and finger. But if the Hei-
1) Eisleben's: thus.
2) In the Eisleben one it says here (erroneously) "Lucas" and in the following place "Matthäus".
The Holy Spirit comes and gives it into the heart, that is, when not only the mouth preaches but also the Holy Spirit gives into the heart, then man does everything.
025 Of this also we see here, that though Pharaoh see his masters become ashamed, yet he turneth not away, but waxeth more and more obstinate and vexed; as Solomon saith also Proverbs, chapter eighteen, v. 3: "When the wicked reigneth, there cometh contempt and reproach with scorn." They turn their backs on it all. So do ours; they think it is a transition, that it will be different 2c.
V.20. 21. And the LORD said unto Moses, Arise in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, behold, he shall go unto the waters, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people, that they may serve me. If not, behold, I will bring all kinds of vermin upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and upon thy house; and all the houses of Egypt, and the field, and all that is therein, shall be filled with vermin. 2c.
(26) This is the fourth plague, all kinds of evil worms and harmful animals, that is, all kinds of flies; so some have translated it. But our German is better, Ungeziefer. This plague is also to drive the Egyptians to repentance and correction, and to let the children of Israel go out of Egypt.
(27) Now such plagues came over Egypt alone, and not over the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel dwelt, which is a special miracle, and God wanted to prove His omnipotence and glory, that He was the God of Israel and spared His people, but could punish the Egyptians, as His people's enemies and adversaries, so that they alone honored, praised and glorified Him as the true, truthful God. Just as he would have brought all miracles and plagues upon Egypt so that the power of his strength and glory would be seen in the Egyptians and his name would be praised throughout the world. The Egyptians were to see by these plagues that he alone was God.