Angels at the Time of the Exodus
67
miracle, in evidence of their divine commission.... Aaron now took
the rod, and cast it down before Pharaoh. It became a serpent. The
monarch sent for his “wise men and the sorcerers,” who “cast down ev-
ery man his rod, and they became serpents; but Aaron’s rod swallowed
up their rods.” ...
The magicians did not really cause their rods to become serpents;
but by magic, aided by the great deceiver, they were able to produce
this appearance. It was beyond the power of Satan to change the rods
to living serpents. The prince of evil, though possessing all the wisdom
and might of an angel fallen, has not power to create, or to give life;
this is the prerogative of God alone. But all that was in Satan’s power
to do, he did; he produced a counterfeit. To human sight the rods
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were changed to serpents.... There was nothing in their appearance to
distinguish them from the serpent produced by Moses. Though the
Lord caused the real serpent to swallow up the spurious ones, yet even
this was regarded by Pharaoh, not as a work of God’s power, but as
the result of a kind of magic superior to that of his servants.
Pharaoh desired to justify his stubbornness in resisting the divine
command, and hence he was seeking some pretext for disregarding the
miracles that God had wrought through Moses. Satan gave him just
what he wanted. By the work that he wrought through the magicians,
he made it appear to the Egyptians 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 accomplished its purpose, of emboldening the Egyptians
in their rebellion, and causing Pharaoh to harden his heart against
conviction. Satan hoped also to shake the faith of Moses and Aaron in
the divine origin of their mission.—
Patriarchs and Prophets, 263, 264
.
When the miracles were wrought before the king, Satan was on
the ground to counteract their influence and prevent Pharaoh from
acknowledging the supremacy of God and obeying his mandate. Satan
wrought to the utmost of his power to counterfeit the work of God
and resist His will. The only result was to prepare the way for greater
exhibitions of the divine power and glory, and to make more apparent,
both to the Israelites and to all Egypt, the existence and sovereignty of
the true and living God.—
Patriarchs and Prophets, 334
.
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The storm [the seventh plague] came on the morrow as predicted—
thunder and hail, and fire mingled with it, destroying every herb,