There is no one like the Lord

Press the play button to watch the video above or press 'more' to read the transcript of the daily devotion below. Please read Exodus 8:1-15 (use your own Bible or use the link above to access the in-App Bible).

‘So that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God.’ Exodus 8:10

God wants king Pharaoh and the people of Egypt to know that there is no other god like the God of Israel. This God is on the side of the poor, the oppressed and the exploited. This God offers opportunity to the rich and the perpetrator to turn from sin to repentance and live a just life.

The plague of frogs is an intentional initiative to use Pharaoh’s stubborn and hardened heart as a means for God to reveal His power to the nations. God was far above the Egyptian magicians who had no comprehension of who God was and the power of God. This plague is more than a miraculous sign. It highlights the way God encounters the evil of that time. The king and the rich people were unjust and oppressive to the poor. 

The plague of frogs reminds me of my childhood in our village house during monsoon season, when frogs of different sizes were seen everywhere. But people living on upper levels or in two or three-story high buildings did not face such invasion of frogs. It seems this plague was more to affect the rich as the poor of Egypt, who lived in small mud-brick houses of one or two bedrooms with a palm-trunk roof, would have been used to such infestation. Infestation of frogs in the homes of the rich living in upper stories, surrounded by landscaped gardens and enclosed by a high wall was to become quite frightening to them. This plague was a message to the rich, to the powerful, and to unjust people that the God of Israel is a God who delivers the poor, the oppressed and the marginalised.

In Jesus, we see the incarnate God, unique and unlike any other gods, dying on the cross to deliver the world from the death of sin. 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his book ‘Letters and Papers from Prison,’ is apt when he says, ‘I should like to speak of God not only on the borders of life but at its centre, not in weakness but in strength, not, therefore, in man’s suffering and death but in his life and prosperity…God is the beyond in the midst of life.’

Let us pray: Jesus, there is none like You. You are Lord our God, full of grace and mercy. Amen.

The Revd Dr Sarah Siddique Gill, Vicar of United Benefice of St Stephen’s with St. James’, Blackburn