by Pastor Don Elmore
September 7, 2014
Scripture Reading: Exodus 7:22
In the story of the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, we have the magicians of Egypt duplicating three of the miracles from God that Moses proclaimed that He would do against the Egyptians. Many Christians are unaware that the magicians of Egypt could do some of the miracles that God could do:
- Rods turned into serpents (Exodus 7:11-13)
- Turning of the water to blood (Exodus 7:22)
- Bringing up of frogs (Exodus 8:7)
In fact, if the Christians reads closely he will see that it just wasn’t just the magicians, but the wise men, sorcerers and the magicians that were called by Pharaoh (Exodus 7:11). What was the difference between them?
- Wise men: men of learning; men who knew the occult arts.
- Sorcerers: men who revealed hidden secrets; to uncover.
- Magicians: men who were decipherers or interpreters of the hieroglyphic writings found in books containing magic formulas that belonged to the Pharaoh.
Exodus 7:11: “Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.”
Let’s recreate the scene in our mind: Aaron took his rod and cast it before Pharaoh and his servants and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh called his wise men, sorcerers and magicians and they also threw their rods on the ground and they became serpents. So we have a tie: we have all of these serpents slithering on the ground: one serpent from Aaron’s rod and the other serpents from Pharaoh’s occult crowd. But it didn’t remain a tie; for Aaron’s rod (serpent) swallowed up their rods (serpents)! This proved that God’s power is greater than the power of the magicians.
But this also shows us that the occult does have some power. They can perform some of these miracles in like manner with their enchantments. The magicians, wise men and sorcerers in the future will bring down fire from heaven and do various kinds of miracles to deceive even the elect. Does this also include the healing of the sick?