And the LORD said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land. But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.” Moses and Aaron did so; they did just as the LORD commanded them. Now Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.
Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “When Pharaoh says to you, Prove yourselves by working a miracle,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.’” So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the LORD commanded. Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent.
Comment: What were the brothers’ heart rates when they went through the door into Pharaoh’s throne room? Were they confident in God’s statement of ultimate victory or truly brave because they were dead scared of the power and hatred of the Pharaoh? I know that God had spoken to them, but He didn’t make it sound as if it would all be easy. They had been told that Pharaoh wouldn’t listen to them. What did Moses imagine that God meant when He said ‘Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt‘? But the 80 year old brothers did exactly what they were told. They threw the staff down, I suspect hoping that the miraculous change into a snake would miraculously sort everything out! From his earlier time living as son of a Princess, Moses would have known about snake worship and snakes representing the Divine and the Royalty of Pharaoh! What would Moses have expected Pharaoh to have felt when a slave’s walking stick became a snake?
Prayer: In spite of set-backs, help me to know that You are the Victor, even when all seems to be lost!
As I read it! 