John Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: April 10

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | Download

John Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: April 10


Today is: Thursday, April 25th, 2024 (Show Today's Devotion)

Select a Day for a Devotion in the Month of April: (Show All Months)

The Contest

Exo_7:1-14

The conflict has now begun. Its object is to impress upon the mind of Pharaoh the conviction that the God of the Hebrews—the Jehovah whom he “knew not,” and to whom he refused obedience—was one whose power was far too great to be safely defied, and from which his own gods could afford him no protection. In proportion to his obstinacy, the more terrible the manifestations of Divine power must become, until at last the severity of the judgment should wring from him the consent, so long withheld, to the departure of the Israelites—the glory of the Lord having, in the process of working this conviction, been magnified in the sight of all Egypt. From the nature of the case, the conflict could only be one of miracles; which, also from the nature of the case, must increasingly become miracles of judgment. These miracles Moses and Aaron were commissioned to execute. It would then be naturally expected by the king, that the servants of his own gods should perform the like mighty works, in order to show that their gods were not less powerful and efficient than the God of the Hebrews. The conflict was precisely of the same essential nature as that between Elijah and the priests of Baal, except that the latter were unable, from the circumstances by which they were surrounded, or from their ignorance of the high secrets in art which the Egyptian priests were always famous for, even to simulate the miracle they vainly called upon their god to execute. The conflict was here between the might of the Lord and the “wisdom” of Egypt. The triumphant result had the two-fold object of compelling the king to acquiesce in the demand made in the name of Jehovah, and of assuring the minds of the wavering and timid Israelites that they might safely entrust themselves to the guidance of Moses, at whose word these wonders were wrought. Some are apt to wonder that Pharaoh’s heart was so very hard, that he was not by the result rendered a worshipper of Jehovah; nor indeed awakened to any distrust of the existence of the gods he served. But this was not the effect intended to be produced. He looked not upon these things as those who know that there is but one God—that One who by Moses and Aaron spoke to him; but he regarded the matter as a polytheist, who believed that he had gods of his own, as the Hebrews had theirs. The ultimate effect of the failure of the Egyptian magicians, would be to convince him, either that the God of the Hebrews was more powerful than he had supposed, or, which is more probable, that he had incurred the displeasure of his own gods—that they refused to interfere—and that it was their will that the Israelites should depart. We may hence conceive that he held out so long and so obstinately in the hope that his own gods would at last relent, and put forth in the behalf of their worshippers the power he still believed them to possess. That this was the effect appears to be shown by the fact that after he had been compelled to consent to their departure, by the most awful judgment ever inflicted upon a nation—he no sooner heard that the Israelites had made what appeared to be a false step in the direction of their march, than he concluded that his own gods had at length begun to move in his behalf, and hastened to pursue them—to his own undoing. If the conviction of the supreme power of Jehovah had been wrought before he consented to the departure of the Hebrews, this step would hardly have been taken.

In examining the miracles which constituted the memorable “plagues” of Egypt, we are at some disadvantage from our still imperfect knowledge of the mythology of the Egyptians. We can see in one or two cases that the inflictions were such as to bring disgrace on the gods of Egypt, and we may believe that the others bore in some way not only upon the material comfort but the religious ideas of the people. From the want of this knowledge much of the intended effect of these miracles is lost to our apprehensions, as we are only able to regard them in their material relations, which were probably not to the Egyptians themselves the most significant part of them. Had the accounts been given more in detail, this obscurity would not exist: but details were unnecessary for the information of contemporaries, and the want of them, it is likely, would long continue to be supplied by the reports which went down from father to son.

It is not our intention to investigate fully all these miracles, but we shall point out some considerations in connection with each of them, that appear likely to interest the readers of these Daily Illustrations.

Moses and Aaron again presented themselves before the king, who seems to have required them to produce some sign by which their mission might be authenticated. Aaron then threw down his staff, and it immediately became a serpent. This was a sign well suited to the understanding of an Egyptian king, considering the extent in which serpents figured among the symbols and objects of his faith. He however sent for his wise men and sorcerers; and now the contest between the Jewish leaders and the court of Egypt fairly began. The “wise men” threw clown their staves in like manner, and they also became serpents. How was this accomplished? The question recurs as to the subsequent performances. Some think that, by the power of the evil one, these acts were really performed as represented, while others hold that they were acts of legerdemain, or produced by great skill in the natural sciences. The latter is our own belief. Thus, in the present case, the taming of serpents so as to conceal them about the person, and substitute them by a sudden movement for something held in the hand, is well known to be in the East at the present day one of the common arts of jugglery. This, we should say, was what was done in the present instance. The mere appearance of the transformation of a rod into a serpent by an adroit and sudden concealment of the one and production of the other, is certainly an illusion fully within the compass of the art of modern serpent charmers, and may be conceived by any as a delusion most possible to the senses. There is in fact a serpent in Egypt, which, by a particular pressure upon the neck, known to the serpent charmers, becomes so intensely inflated as to be quite rigid and motionless—not unlike a staff. It may in that state be held out horizontally, without bend or flexure; but, on being again touched in a particular manner, it recovers from its trance, and becomes as it was before. May not this serpent have been employed by those Egyptians? In his case the very operative difference between the real and the pretended miracle is, that while the real serpents of the wise men assumed the appearance of rods, the real rod of Moses became a real serpent; and when both were opposed in a state of animated existence, by the rod devouring the real living animals, thus conquering the great typical representation of the protecting divinity of Egypt.

It is seen that these men had opportunity for preparation. It is to be presumed, that in summoning them to the king’s presence, they were informed of what had been done, and of what they would be expected to do. But something happened that they were not prepared for, that could not have entered into their calculations, and then they were baffled. “Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods,” and we do not read that they either attempted to prevent this, or to follow it by an imitation. By this, and by the serpent reverting to a rod when Aaron took hold of it, the superior nature of the power he exercised, and that it was far above all delusive art, was shown. Even serpents do not naturally devour each other; neither, were that the case, could one serpent devour many, and, from the very nature of the circumstances, the act of one serpent eating others could not have been a delusion. The feeding of serpents is always a slow operation; and in this instance it was watched by most keen and suspicious eyes. Had the serpent of Aaron merely become a rod again, this also they might have imitated, either by jugglery, or by availing themselves of the natural qualities of the serpent, to which we have referred; but the ultimate swallowing of their serpents by that of Aaron, placed the transaction out of the reach of their experience, and beyond the resources of their art.