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.
they cast down every man his staff, and they became serpents; but Aaron's staff swallowed up their staves.
In Pharaoh's court Aaron's staff becomes a serpent, and the king's wise men copy the wonder — until Aaron's staff swallows theirs. How far can God's enemy copy His work, and why did Pharaoh still refuse to bend?
A rod in Scripture stands for authority. The first sign given to Moses turned that authority into something satanic.
The point of this wonder was the change of power (which a "rod" means in Scripture) into something satanic. The rod is the symbol of authority… The rod of power taking satanic form seems to be what the first sign committed to Moses means. That was exactly the state of things in the land of Egypt.
The sign struck Egypt where it was proudest.
Egypt's own emblem — its idea of life and majesty, the sign on the crowns of its kings, its own proud boast — was now gripped in the firm hand of the man who wielded it. In the name of the Lord his God he stood before Pharaoh and demanded the release of Israel.
The magicians did not argue with Moses. They copied him — and the New Testament names two of them.
The New Testament names the chief of these. We read, "Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth" (2 Tim. 3:8). This reference is very important. It shows that what the magicians did embodies a principle of how Satan works. What, then, was its special character? It was, in one word, IMITATION… In Timothy those who resist the truth are described as "having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power" (2 Tim. 3:5). This is one of Satan's most dangerous subtleties. If he can succeed in open opposition to the truth, he will not hide himself. But if that door is shut, he will disguise himself as an angel of light.
The tactic outlived Egypt. It no longer needs miracles.
The way these opponents worked was by imitating Moses as far as they could. They could only do it within limits, until the power of God rose in such display that it was hopeless for them to follow. In Christendom imitation is easier, since it is not a question of miracle but of the semblance of truth. Strikingly, the new and withering seductions of the enemy are typically imitations of truth. They come so close that they would deceive even the elect, if that were possible.
One writer sets the limit of the enemy's power at creation itself.
We may ask how far the devil can work miracles. I know of no limit, if God allows it (as in Egypt), in the use of natural laws or in producing appearances… But beyond nature or deception they cannot go. Ask them to create a louse, and Satan's instruments are at their wits' end (Exodus 8:16-18). God alone can create… Jannes and Jambres helped to harden Pharaoh's heart. But it only brought out the display of God's own power and government in judgment.
The record shows where the copying stopped.
The magicians of Egypt could imitate the servants of the true and living God in only three things. They turned their rods into serpents (Ex. 7:12), turned the water into blood (Ex. 7:21), and brought up the frogs (Ex. 8:7). But the fourth sign involved the display of life. It left them totally confounded, and they had to admit, "This is the finger of God" (Ex. 8:16-19).
The odds in that court were against Moses. The outcome showed whether Egypt's serpent was a god at all.
There was but one rod on the side of God; there were many on Satan's side. "But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs." How conclusive this should have been to Pharaoh, that the serpent he worshipped was no god!… This first miracle stands by itself, in that it was not a plague. It was simply the Lord executing judgment on the gods of Egypt.
The magicians lost more than a contest; they lost the emblem of their standing.
But look — Aaron's rod devoured theirs, and he took the serpent by its tail and so took up his rod again. The magicians were empty-handed. Their token of authority was gone. They could only look at one another.
The sign was decisive. Pharaoh still would not bend.
The next move they did not expect, and it was beyond them. Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods. Divine power, even when cast down, proved itself stronger than the power of the foe. But in spite of this there was no softening in the heart of Pharaoh.
The margin between the two sides has not changed.
God's people and representatives were a despised minority. But the power with them was greater than the power with their opponents who sought 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!
- Challenge. The rod stands for authority. Cast down before Pharaoh, it took satanic form — God's challenge to the serpent on Egypt's crowns.
- Counterfeit. Satan's method here is not denial but imitation. It returns later as the appearance of godliness without its power.
- Limit. Copying stops where creation begins. Satan may use appearances and natural forces, but he cannot give life — and the magicians said so themselves.
- Swallowed. One rod stood against many, and theirs were gone. The serpent Egypt worshipped proved to be no god.
- Confidence. Divine power, even when cast down, is stronger than the enemy's. The same margin guards a despised people today, for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
And Pharaoh's heart was stubborn, and he hearkened not to them, as Jehovah had said.
Aaron's rod had just swallowed the rods of Egypt's magicians, and the king watched it happen — yet his heart stayed unmoved. The verse adds that this happened "as the LORD had said". So who hardens here — Pharaoh, or God?
The sign came in two stages. Egypt's experts matched the first; the second left them empty-handed.
Pharaoh had no faith. He was sure to demand a visible, miraculous sign to prove Moses was sent, so the sign of Moses' rod becoming a serpent was given. Aaron performed this, but the magicians of Egypt showed that they too could bring this wonder about. They acted under the power of Satan, who is the serpent. So they too could show that casting down authority produces what is satanic. The next move they did not expect and it was beyond them. Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods. Divine power, even when cast down, proved itself stronger than the power of the enemy. But despite this there was no softening in the heart of Pharaoh.
The men whose trade this was knew what they had lost. Their reaction and Pharaoh's went opposite ways.
These magicians were in close touch with their god. We might almost say they were in spirit-contact with the hosts of the old serpent, the Devil. They had sought their god's power and had obtained it. Then, suddenly, the sign of that authority vanished. The loss of their rods ended the argument for them. That they were shaken in their hearts no one can doubt. But Pharaoh hardened his heart. He would not heed the word of God.
The wording here does not yet place the act on God's side. It describes a heart made strong against God.
Mercy had been within his reach, but he refused it again and again. Six times over terrible plagues warned him about the folly of resisting God, but each time he hardened his heart. Exodus 7:13 should read, "And Pharaoh's heart was hardened (or strong) so that he did not listen." The Lord did not harden him as a judgment until chapter 9:12.
Both truths stand: man hardens himself, and God hardens. The order between them settles the sense.
God sent a testimony to Pharaoh, as He does to everyone in some form or another. But man left to himself always refuses the testimony of God. He knows it is God. He is conscious that he is doing wrong in refusing it. Yet he refuses, because he does not like God and dare not trust Him, whose word interferes with everything he likes. So man gives himself up to unbelief. Then God may seal a person up in a judicial hardness, either at that time or later, according to His own wisdom. That hardness is a distinct positive act on God's part... God hardens because man refuses His word. So the hardening is a judicial act on God's part. It comes in after man has proved himself an unbeliever and has kept on in it. It was so with Pharaoh. His is a typical case — the permanent warning in the New Testament, and the first recorded instance in the Old.
Each time God lifted a plague, He showed mercy. That mercy is what the king used against Him.
Where does the sovereignty of God come in here? Is it not seen in this — that again and again, God acted in sovereign mercy in removing the plagues? But this mercy only became the occasion of Pharaoh hardening his heart (see Exodus 7:13, 22; 8:15, 19, 32; 9:7). In the end, after Pharaoh had hardened his heart, we read that "the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh" (Exodus 9:12).
This account is not just about one ancient king. It describes what happens to anyone who keeps refusing clear light.
If a man resists the light of divine testimony, he is shut up to judicial blindness and hardness of heart. God leaves him to himself, and then Satan comes in and carries him headlong to ruin. Pharaoh had plenty of light. It showed him the extreme folly of his course in trying to detain those whom God had commanded him to let go. But the real disposition of his heart was to act against God, and therefore God left him to himself.
- Sign given. Aaron's rod swallowed the magicians' rods. Divine power, even when cast down, is stronger than the enemy's — and Pharaoh saw it.
- Sign refused. The magicians themselves were shaken by losing their rods; the king was not. He would not heed the word of God.
- Self-hardened first. Here the wording describes Pharaoh's own heart as hard. The Lord's hardening is not stated until chapter 9:12.
- Mercy misused. Every removal of a plague showed sovereign kindness. Each one became the occasion for further hardening.
- Then hardened by God. God hardens only after a man keeps refusing His testimony, never before it. That makes Pharaoh a standing warning to anyone who resists clear light.