The magicians did not really cause their rods to become serpents, but by magic, helped by the great deceiver, they were able to produce this appearance. The prince of evil possesses all the wisdom and might of a fallen angel, but he has no power to create or to give life—this is God’s right alone. Satan produced a counterfeit.
To human sight the rods had changed to serpents. This is what Pharaoh and his court believed them to be. Though the Lord caused the real serpent to swallow up the false ones, Pharaoh did not regard this as a work of God’s power, but as the result of a kind of superior magic.
Pharaoh was seeking some excuse to disregard the miracles that God had performed through Moses, and Satan gave him just what he wanted. He made it appear 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 caused Pharaoh to harden his heart against conviction. Satan also hoped to shake the faith of Moses and Aaron.
The prince of evil knew very well that Moses was an early symbol of Christ, who was to break the power of sin over the human family. He knew that when Christ would appear, mighty miracles would give evidence to the world that God had sent Him. By counterfeiting the work of God through Moses, Satan hoped not only to prevent the deliverance of Israel but through future ages to destroy faith in the miracles of Christ by making them appear to be only the result of human power.
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