Pharaoh sees Aaron’s staff become a serpent. But Pharaoh is used to magic tricks and his sorcerers are able to do the same thing!
What do we make of this? In our modern age, we don’t believe that staffs can become serpents! We need a “scientific” explanation: Some Christians would say that that Aaron’s staff miraculously became a serpent, but the staffs of the sorcerers were really serpents which had been stiffened by some art known to the Egyptians. But that is not what the text of Exodus says! Exodus says that the Egyptian sorcerers “did the same by their secret arts.” Certainly there are stories among the Egyptians of priests who had such powers.
The book of Exodus presents us with the way in which Moses and Aaron challenge Egyptian religion and politics precisely where Egyptian religion and politics is strongest.
The work of apologetics is never to uncover your opponent’s weak spot. The gospel does not seek to exploit the weaknesses of other worldviews. No, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ meets the religions of the world at their strong points and says, “I made that.”
I cannot help but think of the atheist feminist professor who converted to Christianity not because she repudiated her concern for the weak and the helpless, but because she realized (largely to her own horror!) that the gospel does better at caring for the weak and helpless than her atheist convictions did.
In the ancient world, Egyptian priests were the most powerful sorcerers around. And so the LORD sends Moses and Aaron – NOT to be better sorcerers (they only do one trick) – but to demonstrate the power of God himself.
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