Frog

Frogs were ordinary creatures of the Nile, but in the second plague of Egypt they became an instrument of judgment: they “came up, and covered the land of Egypt,” swarming into houses, beds, ovens, and kneading troughs until the land stank with them.

The plague exposed the impotence of Egypt’s gods — the Egyptians even revered a frog-headed deity — and forced Pharaoh to plead with Moses for relief. The psalms remember how God “sent… frogs, which destroyed them,” among the wonders of the Exodus.

Revelation gives the frog a final, eerie role: three “unclean spirits like frogs” come out of the mouth of the dragon and the beast, the spirits of demons gathering the kings of the earth to battle. From plague to prophecy, the frog pictures an unclean, swarming influence that God overrules and judges.