Psa 105:26-36 | KingComments | STEP | Joseph had his father and brothers come to Egypt. The psalmist speaks that “Israel also came into Egypt” ( ). ‘Israel’ means ‘prince of God’ or ‘warrior of God’. It is the name that points to the privileges of the people. The name ‘Jacob’ is also mentioned and it is in connection with the sojourning “in the land of Ham”, which is Egypt. Jacob is the name that points to the weakness of the people. God also takes care of the objects of His promise in Egypt. “He caused His people to be very fruitful” ( ; ). Thus He made the people “stronger than their adversaries” ( ). God’s people always grow against the tribulation. A people who suffer for Christ is a growing people. Then we read that God turned the hearts of the Egyptians “to hate His people, to deal craftily with His servants” ( ; ). Up to that point, the Egyptians had been benevolent to God’s people. When they began to pose a threat, their kindness turned to hatred. God had previously prevented people and kings from doing anything to His anointed ones ( ). The Egyptians began to oppress God’s people and impose hard slave labor on them. We see the LORD directing the history of the people in such a way that the people needed redemption. Here we are taught the truth that God’s people are a people in need of redemption. For this, God provided a deliverer. As He sent out Joseph before them, so now He sent out Moses and Aaron ( ; ). Moses is the servant of God ( ; ), who represented God to the people; he spoke God’s words to them. Aaron was chosen by God to be high priest; he represented the people to God. In Moses and Aaron together we see a picture of the Lord Jesus as the Apostle and High Priest ( ). As the “servant” of God, Moses is a reference to Christ, the Servant of the LORD. He is also a type of the remnant of Israel in the future, the servants of the LORD. Like Joseph in , Moses and his brother Aaron were sent by the LORD to redeem Israel. They were sent by God to Egypt to perform “wondrous acts” there “which He had commanded” (cf. ), as well as the “miracles in the land of Ham” ( ; ; ). Egypt, in Hebrew Mitsraim , was one of the sons of Ham ( ). The signs and wonders that Moses and Aaron did were signs and wonders that came directly from God. He commanded them. Moses and Aaron did nothing but carry out God’s commands. These signs are wonders that were to make it clear to Pharaoh that Moses and Aaron had been sent by the LORD, the God of Israel. The psalmist selects eight of the ten wonder plagues that were performed. He lists them in a different order than in which they are described in Exodus 7-11. These signs begin and end with the most important signs, the ninth and tenth signs: darkness and death. This is done to indicate that the moral condition of the world is darkness, without light, and that the end is death, separated from the living God. A sign means something, it is a clue, it refers to something; a wonder is something supernatural, its origin is not man, but God. It is a sign of authenticity. Just as a director puts his signature under a letter written by his secretary, so through these wonders God puts a signature under the message of Moses. Both signs and wonders are a testimony to God’s people of His faithfulness, that He stands up for them. What were signs and wonders for God’s people were plagues for the Egyptians. Each time the psalmist, in mentioning the signs and wonders or the plagues, speaks of two things: 1. God causes the plagues. They come from Him. We always read in these verses about what “He” does. They describe His deeds and His wonders. The psalmist has called for singing about these in . 2. The plagues are about everything that belonged to the Egyptians. We can see this by the recurring “their”, such as “their waters”, “their fish”. It concerned “their land”, “all their territory”. The first plague the psalmist mentions is the ninth, that of darkness ( ; ). God “sent” this plague – as He had previously sent Joseph and then Moses – ”and made [it] dark” (cf. ). During this plague, all light is absent from Egypt and darkness prevails. This is the result of rejecting God, the source of light. “But all the sons of Israel had light in their dwellings” ( ). Moses and Aaron “did not rebel against His words”, but announced all the plagues in obedience to God’s command. They were not deterred by the threats of the mighty and proud Pharaoh. As faithful messengers of God they fearlessly presented him with the revenge of heaven each time he refused to let God’s people go. The second plague mentioned by the psalmist is the first in Egypt. It is the sign of the change of water into blood ( ; ). What is supposed to mean life, water, turns into blood, signifying the death of all life in the water. The fish are particularly mentioned as the life that is killed because fish are a food source ( ). The frogs, the second plague in Egypt ( ), are mentioned by the psalmist as the third ( ). He says that “their land swarmed with frogs”. Frogs are considered sacred and treated with reverence by the Egyptians. Therefore, they are not to be killed. These idols, under the judging hand of God, now take the form of a plague. The frogs are a picture of unclean spirits, especially sexual uncleanness ( ). The love between husband and wife in marriage is a natural blessing that God has given to man. But that blessing has become a curse. We see this in society. Think, for example, of same-sex relationships, extra-marital or premarital sexual relationships, pornography in magazines and through television and the Internet, sex shops, sex clubs. The frogs are everywhere, in all homes, even in the often well-protected “chambers of their kings”, where we should also think of the princes of the various cities. Then come the “flies” ( ), the fourth plague in Egypt ( ). The flies come through the speaking of God. “He spoke” and they came. The flies, possibly a mixture of all kinds of vermin, carry all kinds of diseases. As a result, people’s lives are defiled and corrupted. As an application for our time, we can think of all kinds of irritations, jealousy, bullying, frustrating each other in every possible way. These things destroy the atmosphere between people and make life unbearable. Loud music at the neighbors’ houses, misbehavior in traffic, bullying behavior in the store, and so many other things that annoys you very much. The psalmist continues with the plague of the “gnats”, the third plague in Egypt ( ). They come through the same speaking of God. Gnats or mosquitoes are little animals that suck the blood, the life, out of man. Our complicated society is full of gnats. Countless people are anxious, confused, nervous, suspicious. The mental institutions are often full. Mental tensions are increasing hand over fist. Many are driven to suicide. Life has no meaning for them anymore, it offers no prospects. The gnats do their deadly work. The next plague the psalmist mentions is that God “gave them hail for rain” or, “made their rain hail” ( ). The hail was accompanied by flashing fire in the midst of the hail. This is the seventh plague in Egypt ( ). The judgments strike the entire land of Egypt in all their ferocity. “He”, that is God, struck down with His hail “their vines also and their fig trees” ( ). “He”, that is God, shattered with His hail “the trees of their territory”. God lets down from “the storehouses of the hail” the hail that He has kept therein “for the day of war and battle” ( ), the day that had come for Egypt. It is an example of the great hail by which the world will soon be ravaged when the church has been caught up ( ). God had to continue to show His will toward His people because Pharaoh would not let His people go. “He spoke, and locusts came, and young locusts, even without number, and ate up all vegetation in their land, and ate up the fruit of their ground” ( ). This is the eighth plague God brought on Egypt ( ). A single grasshopper is insignificant, it represents nothing and can be trampled to death just like that. The Israelites in their unbelief felt this way in the face of the giants in Canaan ( ). In great numbers they are overwhelming and destructive (cf. ). Finally, there is the last plague, the tenth in Egypt, which is also mentioned here last ( ; ). The hour of judgment has come. It may take a long time, God is patient, but then there is no more delay. God also struck down “all the firstborn in their land, the first fruits of all their vigor”. This plague breaks all resistance. There is not a house in all of Egypt in which there is not a dead one. It is the final blow.