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The Beginning of the End
this as a work of God’s power, but as the result of a kind of superior
magic.
Pharaoh was seeking some excuse to disregard the miracles that
God had performed through Moses, and Satan gave him just what
he wanted. He made it appear that Moses and Aaron were only
magicians and sorcerers and that the message they brought could
not claim respect as coming from a superior being. Thus Satan’s
counterfeit caused Pharaoh to harden his heart against conviction.
Satan also hoped to shake the faith of Moses and Aaron.
The prince of evil knew very well that Moses was an early sym-
bol of Christ, who was to break the power of sin over the human
family. He knew that when Christ would appear, mighty miracles
would give evidence to the world that God had sent Him. By coun-
terfeiting the work of God through Moses, Satan hoped not only to
prevent the deliverance of Israel but through future ages to destroy
faith in the miracles of Christ by making them appear to be only the
result of human power.
The Plagues Strike Egypt
Moses and Aaron were directed to go to the riverside the next
morning. Because the overflowing of the Nile was the source of
food and wealth for all Egypt, the river was worshiped as a god, and
the monarch came to its banks daily for his personal devotions. The
two brothers again repeated the message to him and then stretched
out the rod and struck the water. The sacred stream turned to blood,
the fish died, and the river smelled bad. The water in the houses
and the supply in the cisterns was also changed to blood. But “the
magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments,” and “Pharaoh
turned and went into his house. Neither was his heart moved by
this.” For seven days the plague continued, but without changing
Pharaoh’s mind.
Again Aaron stretched out the rod, and frogs came up from the
river. They overran the houses, occupied the bedrooms, and even
got into the ovens and kneading troughs. The Egyptians regarded
the frog as sacred, and they would not destroy it; but the slimy pests
now swarmed even in the palace of the Pharaohs, and the king was