They were piled into heaps, and the land reeked of them. The removal of the frogs is not tidy; it is graphic and lingering. The piles of dead frogs, the stench — these are the physical residue of a plague that cannot be quickly forgotten or explained away. The smell of death is its own form of testimony. Numbers 11:33 records that the quail God sent to the grumbling Israelites also became a plague when consumed in greed — meat still in their teeth, the anger of the Lord burning against them. Physical consequences have a way of persisting in the memory longer than arguments. Egypt will smell the frogs for days. Pharaoh will wake up to the stench every morning. The God of the Hebrews has been here; the evidence remains. And yet, verse 15 follows with Pharaoh hardening his heart.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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