Exodus 7:10, commentary and pictures

Moses and Aaron obeyed the Lord's command when Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and his servants and it became a serpent, the first miracle before Pharaoh to authenticate that the great I AM had sent them. The sign was meant to convince Pharaoh that God had sent them and that it was his duty to let Israel go to serve the living God. It was a genuine miracle wrought by the power of God and not by any human power or science, which the magicians counterfeited by enchantments through the power of the devil to aid deception and undermine faith. Their rods only appeared to become serpents, since Satan cannot create life, a power belonging to God alone, though others held that their rods did become serpents through Satan's power. Aaron's living serpent swallowed their rods, proving God's work greater than and superior to the counterfeit, yet Pharaoh seized on the imitation as an excuse to dismiss the sign as magic and hardened his heart in resistance.

Sign Before Pharaoh

Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and did as the Lord had commanded, Aaron casting down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent. This was the first miracle wrought before Pharaoh, given as authentication of their divine commission that the great I AM had sent them. The wonder was wrought by God and not by any human power in Moses, and it stood as the first display of signs and wonders before the king.

The sign was set before Pharaoh to convince him that God had sent Moses and Aaron and that it was his duty to let Israel go that they might serve the living God. It demanded Israel's release and required Pharaoh to acknowledge that their mission came from God. This first miracle also demonstrated that Egypt's serpent idols could neither help the people nor save themselves.

Deliverance did not follow at once, for events were allowed to unfold so that Pharaoh's tyranny would become clearer. By this delay God's power would be shown both to the Egyptians and to the Israelites. In this way Israel would become eager to leave Egypt and to serve God.

True Power Over Counterfeit

Aaron's rod becoming a serpent was a genuine work and a true miracle wrought by the power of God, not by any human power, influence, or science possessed by Moses. Pharaoh's magicians counterfeited that sign by enchantments worked not by their own skill and science alone but by the power of their god the devil. That satanic aid was given to carry on deception, to encourage rebellion, and to undermine faith in God's work, including to destroy its influence, to harden Pharaoh, and to stagger Moses and Aaron.

The weight of testimony holds that the magicians' rods only appeared to become serpents, for their work was illusion and counterfeit appearance rather than creation of life. Satan cannot create life, a power belonging to God alone, so God's living serpent swallowed the counterfeit ones. The counterfeit was believed real by Pharaoh and his court and was indistinguishable in appearance from Aaron's serpent. In other accounts, their rods did become serpents through Satan's power. Aaron's rod swallowing their rods proved God's work greater than and superior to Satan's counterfeit, showing the true over the false and the real over the spurious.

God limited Satan so the magicians could do only a few of the miracles God wrought through Moses. When they failed to produce lice they were compelled to acknowledge the finger of God. Further evidence that the work was a judgment from the God of Heaven and not magic came in the later removal of the frogs, left dead in heaps corrupting the atmosphere in a way vain philosophy and magic could not explain.

Resistance and Larger Meaning

Pharaoh seized on the magicians' imitation as an excuse to dismiss the sign, concluding the miracle had been performed by magic and becoming more determined to resist the message to let Israel go. He did not recognize the swallowing of their rods as the power of God but treated it as superior magic, which made Moses and Aaron appear as ordinary sorcerers and strengthened his rebellion against conviction. His rejection of this first sign began a course of questioning that hardened his heart, so that later miracles did not persuade him he was wrong but only increased his hatred of the Israelites. He persisted in that hardness until the death of the firstborn.

Moses' work in breaking the yoke of bondage and freeing Israel prefigured Christ's first advent to break Satan's power over the human family and deliver the captives. Satan knew this, and through the counterfeit sought to destroy the influence of God's work, to harden Pharaoh's heart against God's power, to stagger the faith of Moses and Aaron in their divine mission, to keep Israel in Egyptian servitude, and to reach down through all ages to destroy faith in the mighty miracles of Christ. The episode thus begins a contest in which Pharaoh's magicians imitate Moses and Aaron, but Moses and Aaron prevail through the Lord's power, showing that God's power defeats the enemy. It illustrates that God's servants may be given supernatural power to uphold the truth against deceptive wonders.

The magicians' claim that they could do the same is compared with deceptive spiritual work in the world and among professed churches.