Exodus 7 - 9

When we left Moses in Chapter 6, he was arguing with God about being the one to lead Israel out of Egypt. When we take back up in Chapter 7, Moses is still arguing with God about that. One would think...but God is patient. Moses protests that Pharaoh will not listen to him because of his faltering speech. Finally, God convinces him to go along with his brother, Aaron, even telling Moses that he will be like God to Pharaoh, meaning he would represent God himself, and would have much power. It says Moses was 80 years old and Aaron was 83, but they lived longer those days.
Therefore, the wars of the miracles and plagues began when Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh to demand the release of the slaves. Aaron throws down his staff and it becomes a snake, but Pharaoh's magicians are able to duplicate the miracle, however, Aaron's snake quickly swallows up the snakes that come from the magicians' staffs. As God predicted, Pharaoh hardened his heart and refused to let the people go.
Then God instructs Moses to meet Pharaoh the next morning at the Nile River when he goes to bathe. Moses is to ask for the people's release again and, when Pharaoh refuses, he is to strike the Nile with his staff and it will turn to blood, killing all the fish and making the water unsanitary. Again, Satan gave the magicians the ability to duplicate the plague, so Pharaoh didn't believe that Moses' power came from God.
After a lull of seven days, God again instructs Moses to go to Pharaoh and threaten him with a plague of frogs. Frogs were worshipped in ancient Egypt, sort of as cattle are today in India, so Pharaoh had no fear of frogs. The plague of frogs commenced. There were frogs everywhere--in their beds, ovens, and dishes and wherever they could see. Pharaoh's magicians also called up frogs, which only compounded the problem. Isn't that the way sin works? Satan adds to our folly at all times.
Pharaoh gets tired of the frogs quickly, and asks Aaron and Moses to pray to their God to take them away. Apparently, his magicians couldn't reverse this plague. Here Pharaoh does a strange thing, though. Moses told him to set a time for the frogs to go away, so there would be no question of who caused the plague to cease, and Pharaoh says, "Tomorrow." Isn't that just like us? We want the consequences of our sin to go away, but we want to coddle the sin for just one more day. We don't want to quit drinking; we only want to slow down, etc. The frogs have another parallel with our sin. They stank. Twenty-four hours after Moses prayed, the frogs began to die in the houses and the courtyards and fields. They piled them up and they smelled bad. As soon as the frogs were gone, however, Pharaoh again changes his mind about letting the Israelites go, just as God said he would.
Then they called up gnats out of the dust of the ground, and Egypt is a dry, dusty place. This plague the magicians weren't able to duplicate. Even they had to admit this was the finger of God. God was really ratcheting up the pressure on Pharaoh and wanted him to know only He could cause these miracles.
Have you ever been attacked by a swarm of gnats? I have. They get up your nose, in your ears and eyes and sometimes you suck them in when you take a breath. It can drive one mad shortly. I have seen horses and dogs go almost insane from gnats bothering them. They burrow down in their ears and chew on them until they are just a mass of scabs.
Pharaoh bowed his neck and refused to ask for relief from the gnats, so God sent Aaron and Moses to threaten to add swarms of flies to the gnat problem. God would keep the flies away from the Land of Goshen, where all the Israelites lived, though, and this would be Pharaoh's proof that God had brought the flies to plague Egypt. After the land was ruined by the flies, Pharaoh finally is wearying of all the plagues and relents somewhat. He tells them they can go sacrifice to their God, if they do not to go out of Egypt. Isn't that just like sin? It tries to hold us, once it has entrapped us. "Ok, you can go to church, but then come back to your old way of life the other six days a week," it whispers. What a lie.
However, Moses insists they must go at least a three-day journey to make their sacrifices because their animal killing would be detestable to their Egyptian neighbors, who would then call for their deaths. Therefore, Pharaoh consents to their journey into the desert and asks them to pray for relief from the flies. When the flies subside, so does Pharaoh’s promise. Again, he changes his mind, and declines to let the Hebrews leave.
Then God strikes Egypt in the pocketbook. He tells Moses to threaten the livestock, cattle, sheep, goats, horses, camels and donkeys. This was their livelihoods. The animals provided food, clothing, and many forms of commerce, just as they do today. However, the livestock of the Hebrews are exempted. Pharaoh stiffened his neck and the Lord struck. Every animal belonging to the Egyptians died, but not one of the Hebrew's animals succumbed to this plague. Pharaoh just became belligerent at this point, said through gritted teeth, I imagine, "I will not let the slaves go!"
Then God sent a plague of boils on all the Egyptians. Have you ever had even just one boil? I have. They are painful and nasty. You just wish they would go away. They were so bad; the magicians couldn't even stand before Moses and Aaron to try to make the plague go away. Still, Pharaoh kept on in his stubbornness.
While the people were still sore with boils, God sent a huge hailstorm on Egypt. Before doing so, He reminds Pharaoh that He could have just killed them all before this point. Even that reasoning has no effect on this king of Egypt. Some of the Egyptians, by this time, were believers in the God of Israel. They hurried to bring their families, slaves and animals under shelter.
Moses stands before all Egypt with his staff outstretched toward the sky and the thunder rolls, lightening flashes all around him and the worst storm in Egypt's history begins--except in the Land of Goshen.
At this point, Pharaoh has a moment of true repentance, though short-lived. That is just like us. We get a head knowledge of God, but it hasn't traveled the 12 or so inches to our hearts. He states, "This time I have sinned. The Lord is in the right and I and my people are in the wrong."
Though his pseudo-repentance didn't fool Moses or God, Moses stopped the storm so that Pharaoh would know the Lord is God. Sure enough, as soon as the storm stopped, Pharaoh changes his mind again.