The frogs were gone. Vanished! You'd think he'd be thanking his lucky stars, right? You'd think he’d be packing up the Israelites and sending them on their way with a "Godspeed!" But nope. The text tells us he "hardened his heart again, and refused to let Israel go." Talk about a lack of gratitude.
So, what’s next? God sends another plague. This time: lice. Ugh. Just thinking about it makes you itch, doesn't it?
Now, here's where things get interesting. For this plague, Moses, usually the point man, is sidelined. He's out of the picture. Why?
God says, and this is a direct quote, "the earth that afforded thee protection when she permitted thee to hide the slain Egyptian, shall not suffer through thine hand."
Think about that for a second. Remember the story? Moses, in his younger days, saw an Egyptian taskmaster abusing an Israelite slave. Moses intervened, perhaps a bit too forcefully, and ended up killing the Egyptian (Exodus 2:11-12). He then hid the body in the sand.
The earth, in a way, became an accomplice, shielding Moses from the consequences of his actions. And now, because of that past deed, because the earth offered him refuge, Moses is forbidden from using his power to inflict suffering upon it. The earth that hid the evidence of his sin shall not be made to suffer because of him, as we learn in Legends of the Jews.
It’s a powerful reminder, isn't it? Even our past actions, the ones we think are long buried, can have unexpected consequences. They shape our present and even limit what we can do in the future. And sometimes, the very things that once protected us are the things we can't touch again.