Exodus 8:16-19

That it may become lice.

The plague of lice

I. The plague itself.

1. This punishment was sent without any previous warning.

2. This plague was inflicted by a very small insect.

3. This plague could not be imitated by the magicians. This rendered Pharaoh’s refusal to humble himself all the more unpardonable.

II. Its teaching.

1. Its infliction produced no real good. How soon the human mind becomes accustomed to novelties, even of the most extraordinary character. So the fallen soul becomes naturalized to the paths of sin and the lessons of God’s judgment.

2. Observe the resources of God. The least thing in His hand can become an instrument of torment.

3. How foolish, then, and how mad, to resist the will of this Divine Being! (Homilist.)

Lessons

1. The devil will try his utmost to counterwork God.

2. The devil is impotent upon the least check from God.

3. God’s power sets on His judgments when the power of Satan fails (Exodus 8:18).

4. The devil’s instruments are forced at last to say they are against God, and He against them.

5. God’s finger or the least of His power makes the devil and his instruments fail.

6. Innate unbelief loves to be kept up by liars, but will not yield when they fail.

7. Treble hardening comes on the wicked by treble judgments.

8. God’s word faileth not which He hath spoken of the sin and judgment of wicked persecutors (Exodus 8:19). ( G. Hughes, B. D.)

The plague of lice; or, an enforced recognition of a Supreme Power in the dire retributions of human life

I. That men are slow to recognize the Supreme Power in the retributions of life.

1. Because they have not right views of the character of God.

2. Because they have not a due consciousness of sin and its demerit.

II. That wicked men are made by continuous retributions ultimately to recognize the Supreme Power against them. “Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of God.” God sometimes plagues men until they acknowledge Him. The events of life are charged with retributions which cannot be hidden by the art of the sorcerer.

III. That when wicked men are made to acknowledge the Supreme Power in the retributions of life they may nevertheless continue in open opposition to it. “And Pharaoh’s heart was hardened.” Lessons:

1. That the retributions of life are designed to lead men to the performance of moral duty.

2. That there are many deceptions calculated to blind men to the hand of God in the events of life.

3. That wicked men are not able to contend with God, and are at times brought to acknowledge His supremacy. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)

Dangerous dust

Dangerous dust in the air is circulated by the elevated railways in New York. A member of the staff of The Scientific American hung a magnet under the track of the elevated road, and when a few minutes later he took it down it was coated with minute particulars of iron dust. This dust, he said, is the cause of many severe cases of eye troubles. The swift passing trains grind off showers of iron particles, which often fall or are blown into the eyes of pedestrians. The microscope shows, that the particles are of innumerable shapes, and they usually have jagged fringes, and many of them have barbs like a fish hook. When lodged in the eye they cannot be attracted therefrom with a magnet, but a gouge-shaped instrument the size of a sewing needle had been devised for the purpose. This peculiarity of the dust resembles that of moral evil It is in the air, and when once it finds a lodgment in the human heart it cannot be withdrawn without difficulty and suffering. This is the of finger God--“Like Phidias, who in his image carved his own name, there is God engraven upon every creature.” Not in characters of human writing is it written, but in the character of the work. Phidias needed not to have written the word phidias in so many letters, for the master’s hand had a cunning of its own which none could counterfeit. An instructed person had only to look at a statue and say at once, “Phidias did this, for no other hand could have chiselled such a countenance”; and believers have only to look either at creation, providence, or the Divine Word, and they will Cry instinctively, “This is the finger of God.” Yet, alas, man has great powers of wilful blindness, and these are aided by the powers of darkness, so that, being both blind and in the dark, man is unable to see his God, though His presence is as clear as that of the sun in the heavens. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The limit of false religion

Human religions can go to a certain point in good works, especially if they have borrowed their systems and copied their charities from the teachings of Christ, which most of them have done. But beyond a certain point they cannot go. It has been observed that the magicians could not bring living things out of the dust of the ground, as Moses did. And a false religion cannot bring life out of death, as the gospel does. Morality and certain good works it can conjure up; but spiritual life it cannot produce. Atheism, in the form of scientific materialism, may point to some notable and heroic disciple, such as Professor Clifford, who died without fear, steadfast in his faith that death was the end of him; but it cannot enable a man to die as Stephen and Paul died. It is not unworthy of our passing thought that the scientific magicians of our day, who are saying, “Who is the Lord?” have tried very hard to generate a living thing out of the dust; but they have as utterly and signally failed as the magicians did in the days of Moses. We may confidently keep a good courage in these days, when the scientific and religious magicians are trying to discredit the Word of God with their enchantments. Be sore that if the conflict is pushed far enough they will come to signal grief. In the end God will give glorious victory to those who stand by His truth, and who continue to cast their rods down in the face of an unbelieving world. (G. F. Pentecost, D. D.)