But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people dwell, so that no swarms of flies shall be there, that you may know that I am the LORD in the midst of the earth.
The fourth plague was that flies would be throughout the land. However, this plague had a distinction from the previous three. Up until now, the water turned to blood, the frogs and the gnats infiltrated the entire land. Since the above verse now indicates a distinction between Pharaoh’s people and God’s people, we can assume that the previous three plagues impacted both. Now God is showing His power to all people to indicate:
1. He has a people that are His possession. Note these verses about the children of God being His possession:
Exodus 19:5 (ESV)
5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured POSSESSION among all peoples, for all the earth is mine;
Deuteronomy 7:6 (ESV)
6 “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured POSSESSION, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
Isaiah 43:21 (ESV)
21 the people whom I formed FOR MYSELF that they might declare my praise.
Malachi 3:17 (ESV)
17 “They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured POSSESSION, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.
1 Corinthians 3:22-23 (ESV)
22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, 23 and YOU ARE CHRIST’S, and Christ is God’s.
Romans 14:8 (ESV)
8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.
1 Peter 2:9 (ESV)
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own POSSESSION, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
2. Since we are God’s possession we have the pleasure of being protected by God. Yes, sometimes the catastrophic events of this world draws no distinction between God’s people and the world. God’s people often are impacted sin that is in the world that is destined to destroy. But God does have the power to keep us from events, as above.
3. Although there is a distinction, God does send His rain on the just and the unjust:
Matthew 5:45 (ESV)
so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
Just as the Egyptians were plagued by God because of their refusal to let God’s people go, they were also blessed by God because God’s people were there, in their land. This was evidenced by the end of Genesis and the story of Joseph.
We can rest and know we are secure in God’s protection no matter where we are. God knows when He sends disaster and He knows when the disaster impacts those He loves.
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