Bibledoorajar: Toils, Boils and Trouble

Call your doctor if:

• The boil is on your face, near your spine, or near your anus.
• A boil is getting larger.
• You have any other lumps near the boil, especially if they hurt.
• You are in a lot of pain.
• You have a fever.
• The area around the boil is red or has red streaks leading from it.
• You have diabetes and you get a boil.
• The boil is as large as a ping-pong ball.
• The boil has not improved after 5 to 7 days of home treatment.
• You get many boils over several months.

The above help from WebMD gives the modern reader some idea of the problems and pains of boils. The plague of boils followed God having said to the Jews that He "Was the Lord, that He Would FREE them and that He Would deliver them from their bondage and that He Would REDEEM them through extraordinary chastisements. Following this He Would TAKE them to be His people and He Would be their God. The plague of boils was an extraordinary chastisement and a strong reminder to the Jews that any supernatural "religious" exercise that they had witnessed during their 400 years of slavery did not even come close to the power of their God who was taking them from Pharoah. The Jews were getting a picture of what it meant to be a serious God loving and respecting Jew!

Severe boils interrupt all aspects of society. Pharoah's magicians and priests could not come to work. Pharoah was standing by a kiln where he was probably sacrificing to one of his gods for help when God instructed Moses to go over and collect some of the sacrificial ashes and throw it toward heaven. The filth landed on Pharoah's people and bacteria went to work. All aspects of life, personal and ecumenical were interrupted. Boils usually hit the body in areas of intimacy keeping people from wanting to have or feeling like having contact with each other. No work or love happened in Pharoah's land when everyone was suffering with boils. He and his land needed the kind of purifying that can come only from God. People today need to realize they need supernatural purification and God sent us Jesus just for that reason. He Is the Lord, He Will redeem through extraordinary chastisements, He Will take us to be His and to our God. Hear Him; refuse boils.