(Exodus) Exodus 7:10-13

Now we find here in verse 10, "...And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh. And they did so as the Lord had commanded. And Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent." Now, the word serpent here, there's been some question about that because there's not very much in Egypt on the snake as there is on other animals.

And the word here actually is the word crocodile, for there were many of them in the Nile River and in many of the ponds in that day. I was told that there were quite a few that were still in that land. I didn't see any when I was there, but I was told they were there.

Well, that's what you have here. You have a crocodile, the rod is changed to a crocodile. And you will find out all the way through this we're dealing with the whole realm of zoology.

That is, the gods of the Egyptians were animal or bird or something like that. And as Paul put it, they changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like the corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. And they symbolized, of course, everything.

And they took an abstract idea and put it into concrete or into an image. And they had deities which represented every phase and function of life. They didn't miss a thing.

And they had changed monotheism into polytheism. And as Sir Wallace Budge has put it like this, they believed in the existence of one great God, self-produced, self-existent, almighty, and eternal. But what happened was they held that this being was too great and mighty to concern himself with the affairs and destinies of human beings, and that he had permitted the management of this world to fall into the hands of hordes of gods and demons and good and bad spirits.

That's what they believed. And that's the thing that Paul, you remember, found when he went to Athens. There was that monument to the unknown God.

Man doesn't actually know the living and true God, worshiping all of these different things. And we find out now that here is this that is against already one of the gods of Egypt. The Hebrew word here is Tanin and is nowhere else in the Bible translated serpent, but right here in this particular section.

It's rendered dragon over an Isaiah and Ezekiel. And it actually is satanic in its meaning. And that's the reason, I suppose, our translators translated it by the word serpent here.

Well, regardless of that, and I'm not concerned about going into the meaning of Hebrew words here other than just to make this statement that the thing that the Egyptians worshiped was the crocodile, among others. They didn't miss an animal, of course. And this animal occupied a very large place in the worship and the religion of Egypt.

The god Sebek, S-E-B-E-K, was said to be incarnated in crocodiles. And Apep, A-P-E-P, was the perpetual arch enemy of all the solar gods appeared in the form of a crocodile. Now, they had, for instance, a magical ritual that they went through in the temple of Amon-Ra at Thebes.

And it was a ritual that attempted to destroy Apep. You see, he was a terrible monster that lived in the nethermost parts of heaven, and he endeavored every day to prevent the rising of the sun god Ra and to stir up lightning and thunder and tempests and storms and hurricanes and rain and to obscure the light of the sun by filling the sky with clouds and mist and fog and blackness. And this was actually a worship in Egypt and was a very prominent worship.

And the very first thing, God now delivers a blow at this. Here, this rod now is changed into a crocodile. And what happened, though, and this is the amazing thing that happens when Moses and Aaron did this, verse 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." Now, they duplicated this miracle. I don't know how they did it, don't ask me that. But Paul says over in II Timothy 3.8, and we've referred to this before, "...now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth.

Men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith." You see, they could duplicate it and, I think, imitate it, by the way. But whatever it was, why, they made a pretty good show of it. Because of that, they resisted the living and true God.

But God's not through with them, of course. Now, verse 12, "...for they cast down every man his rod, and they became crocodiles. But Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods." Now, that's the interesting thing.

Now, they have worshiped the crocodile. But this rod in the hands of Aaron swallows up the other. "...and he hardened Pharaoh's heart that he hearkened not unto them as the Lord had said." Instead of this impressing Pharaoh, it didn't.

It just hardened him. He was set in his way, and he just persisted in it.