Note: This article is an AI-generated adaptation of a spoken transcript and may not fully capture the nuances of the original presentation.
The passage from Exodus 8:16-19 describes the third plague upon Egypt: the plague of gnats. The Lord instructs Moses to tell Aaron to stretch out his staff and strike the dust of the earth, so that it may become gnats throughout all the land of Egypt.
Aaron obeys, stretching out his hand with his staff and striking the dust. Immediately, gnats appear on both people and animals. All the dust of the earth becomes gnats throughout Egypt.
For the first time, the Egyptian magicians attempt to replicate a plague and fail. They try by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they cannot. The gnats remain on people and animals, an inescapable irritation.
The magicians make a significant admission to Pharaoh: “This is the finger of God.” Despite this confession, Pharaoh’s heart remains hardened, and he refuses to listen, just as the Lord had predicted.
The Main Message
The central truth of this brief but powerful passage is that the Lord brings life from dust and can bring judgment from dust. He is the Lord not only of the big things, but also of the little things.
This short account reveals three profound truths about God’s nature and our response to Him.
1. God Is Lord of the Dust
In this plague, God turns the dust of the earth into swarming gnats. This is deeply significant when we remember that this is the same Creator who formed humanity from the dust of the earth in Genesis 2:7.
God now wields dust as an instrument of discipline. Creation itself testifies that the Lord alone is God. Just as God created human life out of dust, He can bring judgment out of dust when necessary.
There’s a fitting irony here: the judgment falls on Pharaoh, who considered himself the lord of the land, yet he too was formed from dust. The very substance from which he was made now rises up against him at God’s command.
A note on the text: The Hebrew term kenim literally refers to gnats or lice—tiny but relentless creatures. When Scripture says “all the dust of the earth” (or “all the dust of the land”), this is hyperbolic language emphasizing just how far God’s reach extends.
In the first two plagues, God demonstrated His lordship over the great Nile River, Egypt’s source of life and pride. Now He shows that He is also Lord of the smallest things—even microscopic dust can be conscripted into His service.
This truth matters for us because we too are small and dependent. We are not the masters of our world, no matter how much control we think we have.
God can use even unsettling, seemingly insignificant things to accomplish His purposes. In doing so, He calls us to remember Him and turn to Him. We are constantly reminded that our hope must rest in Jesus Himself, who bore the curse for us, who bore God’s judgment, so that the groaning of creation would not be the end of our story.
We are dust, but we are dust loved by God, dust redeemed by Christ, dust into which He has breathed eternal life.
2. Counterfeits Reach Their Limit
Throughout the plague narrative, Egypt’s magicians have been able to mimic or replicate the earlier signs through their secret arts. They turned their staffs into serpents (though Aaron’s serpent swallowed theirs). They apparently duplicated the plague of blood and the plague of frogs.
But now they fail completely. They cannot turn dust into gnats. For the first time, they are forced to acknowledge reality: “This is the finger of God.”
This reveals a fundamental truth: imitation gods and false idols can never truly replace God’s power. They may offer convincing counterfeits for a time, but eventually, they reach their limit. God alone is the one who can bring life from the dust of the earth.
The phrase “finger of God” is significant and appears elsewhere in Scripture:
In Exodus 31:18, God Himself writes the law on tablets with His finger
In Luke 11:20, Jesus connects this phrase with the Spirit and God’s kingdom power, saying, “If it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you”
This text invites us to trace a golden thread through Scripture—from this plague, through the formation of Israel as God’s covenant people, ultimately to Pentecost where the Spirit of God descends on believers. These are all moments of God’s divine, saving power coming to bear on the world.
The application for us is clear: All our strategies, habits, idols, and the things we look to for salvation are really just pale imitations. They are like the tricks of the Egyptian magicians—impressive for a time, perhaps, but ultimately powerless.
None of these counterfeits can produce life from nothing. We must recognize that the things we look to other than Jesus can never save us and can never give us the true life that only God can provide. Eventually, every false hope reaches its limit. Only the true God endures.
3. A Hard Heart Resists Even Clear Evidence
Here is perhaps the most sobering truth in this passage. The magicians themselves confess on Pharaoh’s very doorstep: “This is the finger of God.” The evidence is undeniable. The confession comes from his own spiritual advisors, the very people he trusted to match God’s power.
Yet Pharaoh hardens his heart once more.
Even though he is told clearly that God is at work, even though the evidence is overwhelming, Pharaoh refuses to believe. This teaches us a crucial lesson: without the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, even clarity and obvious signs of God’s work will never convince someone of who God is, of who Jesus is.
A hard heart resists even what is plain before it. Logic alone cannot penetrate a heart that is set against God. Evidence, no matter how compelling, cannot overcome spiritual blindness apart from the Spirit’s illumination.
This is why we can be profoundly thankful that the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus to us and is actively at work in those who have come to faith. We didn’t believe because we were smarter or more spiritually sensitive than others—we believed because the Spirit opened our eyes.
This truth should transform how we share our faith. We need to rely on the Spirit’s power in conversion, both for others and in our own continued growth. We can never argue or love or convince someone into faith in Jesus through our own efforts alone. Only the Spirit can do that work.
This reality frees us in two important ways:
First, it frees us to be bold in sharing Jesus with others. We don’t need to have all the answers or the perfect argument. We simply need to be faithful in proclaiming the truth and trust the Spirit to do what only He can do.
Second, it frees us from performance anxiety. We don’t need to produce results for God. We’re not responsible for converting anyone. At the end of the day, only the Spirit Himself can produce the fruit of genuine faith. Our job is faithfulness, not effectiveness measured in conversions.
Living in Light of the Finger of God
This brief passage packs profound implications for our lives:
First, we must recognize God’s sovereignty over all things—great and small. He commands the Nile and the dust, the spectacular and the microscopic. Nothing is beyond His reach or outside His control. This should humble us and give us peace.
Second, we must abandon our counterfeits and imitations. Whatever we’re trusting in other than Jesus will eventually prove powerless. Better to acknowledge this now and turn to the true source of life than to cling to our false hopes until they inevitably fail us.
Third, we must pray for soft hearts—for ourselves and for others. The greatest tragedy is not suffering or hardship, but a heart so hardened that it cannot recognize God’s work even when it’s undeniable. We must regularly ask the Spirit to keep our hearts tender, responsive, and quick to repent.
The magicians saw clearly and confessed, “This is the finger of God.” May we too recognize God’s hand at work in our lives—not just in spectacular miracles, but in the everyday moments when He transforms the dust of our ordinary lives into something that testifies to His glory.
And may we never, like Pharaoh, harden our hearts against what the Spirit is showing us.
Prayer: Holy God, You speak and even the dust obeys. In so doing, You show us the limits of our idols. We thank You that Jesus bore the judgment for our sins, that the judgment we deserved was borne by God the Son, and that You have poured out Your Spirit on all who trust in You. We pray that You will keep us from hardening our hearts when You speak. Help us to repent quickly and to turn only to Jesus as our ultimate Savior. We pray this in His name. Amen.