Exodus 7:10

7:8-13 What men dislike, because it opposes their pride and lusts, they will not be convinced of; but it is easy to cause them to believe things they wish to be true. God always sends with his word full proofs of its Divine authority; but when men are bent to disobey, and willing to object, he often permits a snare to be laid wherein they are entangled. The magicians were cheats, trying to copy the real miracles of Moses by secret sleights or jugglings, which to a small extent they succeeded in doing, so as to deceive the bystanders, but they were at length obliged to confess they could not any longer imitate the effects of Divine power. None assist more in the destruction of sinners, than such as resist the truth by amusing men with a counterfeit resemblance of it. Satan is most to be dreaded when transformed into an angel of light.

And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh,.... Into the palace of Pharaoh boldly, and with intrepidity, clothed with such power and authority, and assured of success: and they did as the Lord had commanded; they demanded in his name the dismission of the children of Israel, and upon his requiring a miracle to confirm their mission, wrought one as follows: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and it became a serpent: or a "dragon", as the Septuagint version; this word is sometimes used of great whales, Genesis 1:21 and of the crocodile, Ezekiel 29:3 and it is very likely the crocodile is meant here, as Dr. Lightfoot (q) thinks; since this was frequent in the Nile, the river of Egypt, where the Hebrew infants had been cast, and into whose devouring jaws they fell, and which also was an Egyptian deity (r). Though no mention is made of Pharaoh's demanding a miracle, yet no doubt he did, as the Lord had intimated he would, and without which it can hardly be thought it would be done; and Artapanus (s), an Heathen writer, expressly asserts it; for he says,"when the king required of Moses to do some sign or wonder, the rod which he had he cast down, and it became a serpent, to the amazement of all, and then took it by its tail and it be came a rod again;''which is a testimony from an Heathen of the truth of this miracle. (q) Works, vol. 1. p. 702. (r) Crocodylen adorat, Juvenal, Sat. 15. (s) Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 27. p. 435.

Exodus 7:10 . It became a serpent — This was proper, not only to affect Pharaoh with wonder, but to strike a terror upon him. This first miracle, though it was not a plague, yet amounted to the threatening of a plague; if it made not Pharaoh feel, it made him fear; and this is God’s method of dealing with sinners; he comes upon them gradually.

Verses 10-13. - THE FIRST SIGN, AND ITS FAILURE TO CONVINCE. Obeying the command given them (vers. 2, 9), Moses and Aaron went to the court a second time, and entering into the royal presence, probably repeated their demand - as from God - that the king would let the Children of Israel go ( Exodus 6:11 ), when Pharaoh objected that they had no authority to speak to him in God's name, and required an evidence of their authority, either in the actual words of verse 9 ("Shew a miracle for you"), or in some equivalent ones. Aaron hereupon cast down on the ground the rod which Moses had brought from Midian, and it became a serpent (ver. 10). Possibly Pharaoh may have been prepared for this. He may have been told that this was one among the signs which had been done in the sight of the elders and people of Israel when the two brothers first came back from Midian ( Exodus 4:30 ). If he knew of it, no doubt the "magicians" knew of it, and had prepared themselves. Pharaoh summoned them, as was natural, to his presence, and consulted them with respect to the portent, whereupon they too cast down the rods which they were carrying in their hands, and they "became serpents; but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods" (ver. 12). (For the explanation of those facts, see the comment below). Pharaoh was to some extent impressed by the miracle, but not so as to yield. His heart remained hard, and he refused to let the people go. Verse 10. - Aaron cast down his rod .

The rod is called indifferently "Aaron's rod" and "Moses' rod," because, though properly the rod of Moses ( Exodus 4:2 ), yet ordinarily it was placed in the hands of Aaron (vers. 19, 20; Exodus 8:5, 17 , etc.) It became a serpent . The word for "serpent" is not the same as was used before ( Exodus 4:3 ); but it is not clear that a different species is meant. More probably it is regarded by the writer as a synonym. Exodus 7:10

Thy rod - Apparently the rod before described Exodus 4:2 , which Moses on this occasion gives to Aaron as his representative. A serpent - A word different from that in Exodus 4:3. Here a more general term, תנין tannı̂yn, is employed, which in other passages includes all sea or river monsters, and is more specially applied to the crocodile as a symbol of Egypt. It occurs in the Egyptian ritual, nearly in the same form, "Tanem," as a synonym of the monster serpent which represents the principle of antagonism to light and life.

The negotiations of Moses and Aaron as messengers of Jehovah with the king of Egypt, concerning the departure of Israel from his land, commenced with a sign, by which the messengers of God attested their divine mission in the presence of Pharaoh ( Exodus 7:8-13 ), and concluded with the announcement of the last blow that God would inflict upon the hardened king ( Exodus 11:1-10 ). The centre of these negotiations, or rather the main point of this lengthened section, which is closely connected throughout, and formally rounded off by Exodus 11:9-10 into an inward unity, is found in the nine plagues which the messengers of Jehovah brought upon Pharaoh and his kingdom at the command of Jehovah, to bend the defiant spirit of the king, and induce him to let Israel go out of the land and serve their God. If we carefully examine the account of these nine penal miracles, we shall find that they are arranged in three groups of three plagues each. For the first and second, the fourth and fifth, and the seventh and eighth were announced beforehand by Moses to the king ( Exodus 7:15 ; Exodus 8:1 , Exodus 8:20 ; Exodus 9:1 , Exodus 9:13 ; Exodus 10:1 ), whilst the third, sixth, and ninth were sent without any such announcement ( Exodus 8:16 ; Exodus 9:8 ; Exodus 10:21 ).

Again, the first, fourth, and seventh were announced to Pharaoh in the morning, and the first and fourth by the side of the Nile ( Exodus 7:15 ; Exodus 8:20 ), both of them being connected with the overflowing of the river; whilst the place of announcement is not mentioned in the case of the seventh (the hail, Exodus 9:13 ), because hail, as coming from heaven, was not connected with any particular locality. This grouping is not a merely external arrangement, adopted by the writer for the sake of greater distinctness, but is founded in the facts themselves, and the effect which God intended the plagues to produce, as we may gather from these circumstances - that the Egyptian magicians, who had imitated the first plagues, were put to shame with their arts by the third, and were compelled to see in it the finger of God ( Exodus 8:19 ), - that they were smitten themselves by the sixth, and were unable to stand before Moses ( Exodus 9:11 ), - and that after the ninth, Pharaoh broke off all further negotiation with Moses and Aaron ( Exodus 10:28-29 ). The last plague, commonly known as the tenth, which Moses also announced to the king before his departure ( Exodus 11:4 .), differed from the nine former ones both in purpose and form.