Exodus 8:1-15 -- Frogs Are Everywhere

Exodus 8:1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and tell him: This is what Yahweh says: Let My people go, so that they may worship Me. 2 But if you refuse to let them go, then I will plague all your territory with frogs. 3 The Nile will swarm with frogs; they will come up and go into your palace, into your bedroom and on your bed, into the houses of your officials and your people, and into your ovens and kneading bowls. 4 The frogs will come up on you, your people, and all your officials.”

So why was their a plague of frogs?  That does not seem to scary or dangerous.  It does not seem life threatening like making the water of the Nile undrinkable by turning it to blood.  Well I did some research into frogs and Egypt.  I had always been told that Egyptians did not like frogs and thought they were disgusting creatures, but after reading a little about Egyptian mythology, I learned that they believed in a god that took the form of a frog, often associated with fertility and childbearing.  By showing God's power over frogs, Moses and Aaron are demonstrating to Pharaoh that their God, Yahweh, can control the Egyptian "god." Another way to look at this is that another Egyptian god, Kuk, was also depicted as a frog, and he was the god of darkness and chaos, so perhaps the fear would come in that the many frogs reminded them of Kuk, and thus chaos and darkness upon the land of Egypt.

Exodus 8:5 The Lord then said to Moses, “Tell Aaron: Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, canals, and ponds, and cause the frogs to come up onto the land of Egypt.” 6 When Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. 7 But the magicians did the same thing by their occult practices and brought frogs up onto the land of Egypt.

So, once again, the magicians were able to duplicate the frogs with their "occult practices"

Exodus 8:8 Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Ask Yahweh to remove the frogs from me and my people. Then I will let the people go and they can sacrifice to Yahweh.”
9 Moses said to Pharaoh, “You make the choice rather than me. When should I ask on behalf of you, your officials, and your people, that the frogs be taken away from you and your houses, and remain only in the Nile?”
10 “Tomorrow,” he answered.
Moses replied, “As you have said, so you may know there is no one like Yahweh our God,11 the frogs will go away from you, your houses, your officials, and your people. The frogs will remain only in the Nile.” 12 After Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, Moses cried out to the Lord for help concerning the frogs that He had brought against Pharaoh. 13 The Lord did as Moses had said: the frogs in the houses, courtyards, and fields died. 14 They piled them in countless heaps, and there was a terrible odor in the land.

Pharaoh agreed  to let the people go if the frogs were taken away.  So Moses agreed and asked God to remove the frogs from Egypt, which God did.

Exodus 8:15 But when Pharaoh saw there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

How many times do we tell God I will do this when this other thing happens.  Take away this hardship or time consuming activity and I will devote more time to you.  I will conform to Your will when this situation is resolved.  How many times are these burdens removed and we still do not devote that time to our Lord?  We fill it with other things instead spending the time with him and conforming to His will.  Our hearts are hard toward's God, just like Pharaoh's heart was hardened and he refused to let the people leave after the relief came from the frogs.

Notice the end of 15 says "as the Lord had said."  Remember, that earlier in the book of Exodus, God tells Moses that he would make Pharaoh's heart hard and Pharaoh would not listen to Moses.  God had this all planned out.  God planned out each plague to show his power and dominion over all the earth, every aspect from the water they drank, the food they ate, the health they had, the weather they experienced, and their comfort and their very lives.  The plagues were designed by God to show that he was the most powerful and His will WILL be done, no matter what.  Our Lord is the one true God and these plagues were to demonstrate that fact to the Egyptians and Israelites equally.  Even though the Israelites were not affected by some of the plagues directly, they were able to see the power of their God in delivering them from the oppression by punishing the Egyptians.

The only other reference to frogs in the Bible (other than verses directly referencing the plagues) comes from Revelation:

Revelation 16:12 The sixth poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the east. 13 Then I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming from the dragon’s mouth, from the beast’s mouth, and from the mouth of the false prophet. 14 For they are spirits of demons performing signs, who travel to the kings of the whole world to assemble them for the battle of the great day of God, the Almighty.

Here the frog-like spirits are demons, enemies of our Lord.  On the great day of the Lord, God will show his power of the demons, these frog-like spirits by defeating them once and for all.