Chapter 83—A Miracle Counterfeited
Some have found difficulty in reconciling a statement in Testi-
monies for the Church, volume I, page 292, with one in Great Con-
troversy, volume I, page 184. [
The account presented in this now-
out-of-print volume was rewritten and amplified by Ellen G. White
and published in 1890 as Patriarchs and Prophets. See page 264
of that volume for the statement paralleling the one referred to here.
[White Trustees.]
] These passages refer to the work of the sorcerers
in counterfeiting the miracle performed by Aaron, of turning the rod
to a serpent. The testimony says: “The magicians could not perform
all those miracles which God wrought through Moses. Only a few of
them could they do. The magicians’ rods did become serpents, but
Aaron’s rod swallowed them up.” This last sentence, which is the one
in question, is substantially the same as the Bible statement: “They
cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron’s
rod swallowed up their rods.” The statement in volume I, of the Contro-
versy, is: “The magicians seemed to perform several things with their
enchantments similar to those things which God wrought by the hand
of Moses and Aaron. They did not really cause their rods to become
serpents, but by magic, aided by the great deceiver, made them appear
like serpents, to counterfeit the work of God.” This statement, instead
[697]
of contradicting the former, is simply explanatory of it.
There is not, in the Testimony, a full expression of the thought
which I wished to convey. On page 293 is a sentence which makes the
meaning clearer: “The magicians wrought not by their own science
alone, but by the power of their god, the devil, who ingeniously carried
out his deceptive work of counterfeiting the work of God.” Moses,
by the power of God, had changed the rod to a living serpent. Satan,
through the magicians, counterfeited this miracle. He could not pro-
duce living serpents, for he has not power to create or to give life. This
power belongs to God alone. But all that Satan could do he did—he
produced a counterfeit. By his power, working through the magicians,
he caused the rods to assume the appearance of serpents.
622