"The Grace of Restraint" (Exodus 8:16-19). The plague of gnats hardly seems as significant as some of the others, but an important change takes place with it. This is the first of the plagues which Egyptian magicians cannot mimic. At first, it may seem that it was simply a failure of their own power, but we might also see it as God's grace restricting the devastation and misery inflicted on the Egyptian themselves.