And Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and did so, as Jehovah had commanded; and Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh, and before his bondmen, and it became a serpent.
In the palace, Moses and Aaron do what God told them: a shepherd's rod hits the floor and becomes a serpent in front of the king. Two questions follow: why this sign for Egypt, and why did God let Pharaoh's magicians copy it?
The sign was not a show. It proved that these two men came with a commission from God. It was the same sign God had taught Moses earlier at Horeb.
Moses and Aaron go in to Pharaoh and present their credentials. A miraculous sign backs them up — the sign which the Lord had taught Moses at Horeb… The wise men of Egypt, the magicians, did the same with their rods. But "Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods." In this way the Lord vindicated the mission of His servants. But, as He had foretold, Pharaoh was not convinced.
Of all possible signs, God picked the one image Pharaoh could not misread. The serpent was stamped on Egypt's crowns, temples and gods.
The serpent was common in some form or other to the gods. As an infant, Pharaoh had been placed under the protection of Rannu, the serpent-headed god. The serpent itself formed part of what we might call the royal arms of Egypt, which decorated the entrances to the temples… And now the man who stood before Pharaoh and demanded the release of Israel gripped Egypt's own special sign in his firm hand. He held it in the name of Jehovah his God. That sign was Egypt's own idea of life and majesty, its emblem on the crowns of its kings, and its own proud boast.
Scripture also gives the serpent a name.
Satan is called that old serpent who deceives the whole world (Revelation 12:9). By deception he brings about the fall of men and nations, as he did with Adam and Eve at the beginning. It is striking that God should give this serpent sign to Pharaoh.
A rod in a man's hand stands for power. One writer looks at that rod on the ground and sees what was holding Israel captive.
Pharaoh demanded proof of their divine mission. So Aaron cast down his rod, and it became a serpent. The rod (the sign of power) had become satanic, and this was the power holding the people captive. It is just the same in the profession of Christianity. There the form of godliness had all its power from the enemy, and no power of life from the truth.
The same picture carries a message aimed straight at Pharaoh's throne.
The first sign… was Aaron's rod being thrown on the ground and turning into a serpent. This is typical of God's using even Satan as a rod of His authority to carry out His purposes. It would tell Pharaoh that even his power (moved by Satan) was under the control of God.
The court sorcerers never argued that Moses was a fraud. They did something cleverer. Commentators see in it the pattern of how people still resist the truth.
The way "Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses" was simply by imitating, as far as they were able, whatever he did. We do not find that they said his actions came from a false or evil energy. Instead, they tried to cancel their power on the conscience by doing the same things. What Moses did, they could do. One was as good as the other. A miracle is a miracle. If Moses worked miracles to get the people out of Egypt, they could work miracles to keep them in.
Then the copy collapses. One writer notes what the magicians could never do, however convincing the show looked.
The rod turned into a serpent showed the whole power of Egypt handed over into Moses' hand. For Pharaoh, it was a challenge of the completest kind. Even when the magicians imitated it, the weakness of their copy was clear: Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods. Of course they could not truly copy so enormous a miracle. That miracle showed Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews, to be the Creator. All the power of Satan was unable to bring into being the smallest creature.
The same outcome speaks to anyone who feels outnumbered.
God's people and His representatives were a despised minority. But the power with them was greater than the power with their opponents, who wanted to keep them in Egypt. It is the same today… "Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world." Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods!
- Credentials — the sign was not a show. By it the Lord backed the mission of His servants before the king.
- Chosen ground — God picked Egypt's own royal emblem. Its proud boast ended up in the hand of the man who demanded Israel's release.
- Captive power — a rod stands for power. Cast down, it became satanic, and that power held the people — as a form of godliness without life still does.
- Counterfeit — the magicians never denied Moses. They copied him, so one thing looked as good as the other, and the conscience felt no weight.
- Swallowed — Satan could not create the smallest creature. The one rod on God's side ate up the many: greater is He who is in you.
And Pharaoh also called the sages and the sorcerers; and they too, the scribes of Egypt, did so with their enchantments
Pharaoh has just seen Aaron's rod become a serpent, and instead of bowing to the sign he calls for men of his own. What follows is not a denial of God's power but a copy of it. That copy sets the pattern for how the enemy has fought God's truth ever since.
The verse names three groups of men, and each had a place in Egypt's religion. One writer explains what their titles meant:
The priests were among the greatest of the Egyptian nobles, and many were of royal blood. Moses knew their wisdom well, for he had been raised as the son of Pharaoh's daughter and had been let into some of their mysteries. The wise men were priests who knew the dark secrets of their religion, and that knowledge armed them with hidden powers. The sorcerers were priests whose special powers let them drive away evils by muttering magic formulas. These formulas often had to do with charming snakes or driving them away. The "scribes of the sacred house" stored them in their secret books.
Some translations call the third group "the scribes of Egypt." Moses faced men trained in the court that had once trained him.
The New Testament names two of these men: Jannes and Jambres (2 Timothy 3:8). They never argued that Moses was a fraud.
Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses in one way only: they imitated whatever he did, as far as they were able. We do not find that they said his actions came from a false or evil energy. Instead, they tried to cancel the effect of his works on the conscience by doing the same things. What Moses did they could do, so that after all there was no great difference. One was as good as the other. A miracle is a miracle.
This tactic came second. Force had been tried first:
Look at the forms of Satan's opposition to the truth of God. His method has always been the same. First he opposes the truth by open violence. Then, if that does not succeed, he corrupts it by producing a counterfeit. So he first tried to kill Moses, and when he failed at that, he tried to imitate his works.
How much of this was real power? One writer sets careful limits:
We may ask how far the devil can work miracles. I know of no limit, if God allows it (as in Egypt), to his use of natural laws or to his producing of appearances. On people who cannot explain them, these have the same first effect as miracles... God alone can create, or by His own will produce what accomplishes His purpose. He disposes of nature as its Master and does what He pleases. Satan uses power, but it is an inferior power, and it works only inside the created world. He cannot go beyond modifying that world, and he cannot even do that whenever he wants.
God fixed how far the copy could go:
God allowed them to keep pace with each step of Moses. Then the very simplest fact showed that their power had come to the end of its rope. They could go no further. They could no more get life-giving power than Simon Magus could buy the power of the blessed Spirit.
One thing lies beyond every counterfeit:
The imitation might be so good that no one could match it. The counterfeit might come so near the truth, so alike, that it deceived everyone. But there is the life of Christ, to be lived out on earth. Christ lives in His own and produces the deep reality that no imitation can ever reach. That makes the folly of all plain, as it made theirs plain.
The rods matched; the outcome did not.
God's people and their representatives were a despised minority. But the power with them was greater than the power with their opponents, who wanted to keep them in Egypt. It is the same today... "He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods! Their imitations still kept up with Moses and Aaron, and hardened the king against Israel, until Aaron brought life out of the dust of the earth. Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God."
The shape of the attack has changed since. The danger is no longer the sword but the disguise:
Again and again, violence has given way to something far more cunning and dangerous: a powerless form, an empty profession, a human counterfeit. The enemy, instead of appearing with the sword of persecution in his hand, walks about with the cloak of profession on his shoulders. He professes and imitates what he once opposed and persecuted.
- Copy, not contradiction. The magicians never called Moses a liar; they matched him, so that "one was as good as the other."
- Copy has a source. They borrowed their power, and it had limits — it could modify what already existed, never create.
- Copy has a ceiling. They kept step until the sign called for life. Then they confessed, "This is the finger of God."
- Copy gets swallowed. Aaron's rod ate theirs in front of the king.
- Copy is today's danger. The enemy has traded the sword of persecution for the cloak of profession, imitating now what he once attacked.