The Serpent King and the Serpent Stick Text: Exodus 7:8-13
Introduction: A Contest of Realities
We come now to the first great confrontation in the court of Pharaoh. We must disabuse ourselves of the modern, sanitized notion that this is a simple morality play about freeing an oppressed people. It is that, but it is much more. This is a collision of pantheons, a war of gods. On one side stands Pharaoh, the incarnate god-king of Egypt, the supposed master of the cosmos, surrounded by the full might of his state-sponsored religion. On the other side stand two elderly Hebrew shepherds, armed with nothing but a wooden stick and a word from the one true God, Yahweh. This is not a fair fight, and that is precisely the point.
The modern secularist, if he bothers to read this at all, sees a contest of primitive superstitions, a magic show in the Bronze Age. He smugly assumes he has outgrown all this nonsense. But he is a fool. He fails to see that the same contest is happening right now, in our own courts and legislatures and universities. Man is an inescapably religious creature, and he will always have a god. The question is never whether there will be a religion, but which religion it will be. The priests of our modern Egypt wear lab coats and judicial robes instead of linen headdresses, and their secret arts are called "the science" and "public policy," but their goal is the same as the magicians of Pharaoh: to create a reality apart from God, to wield power on their own terms, and to keep men in bondage.
This encounter is a direct assault on the central lie of all paganism, ancient and modern. That lie is that power is ultimate, and that reality is a contest between roughly equal forces. God is about to demonstrate that this is a profound misunderstanding. He is not one power among many; He is the source of all power. He is not a character in the story; He is the author. And He is not here to negotiate. He is here to announce the terms of Pharaoh's unconditional surrender.
The Text
And Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, "When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, 'Work a miraculous wonder,' then you shall say to Aaron, 'Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.' " So Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and thus they did just as Yahweh had commanded; and Aaron threw his staff down before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers, and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did the same with their secret arts. And each one threw down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs. Yet Pharaoh's heart was hardened with strength, and he did not listen to them, as Yahweh had spoken.
(Exodus 7:8-13 LSB)
The Arrogant Demand (v. 8-9)
The confrontation begins with God anticipating Pharaoh's move.
"And Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 'When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, "Work a miraculous wonder," then you shall say to Aaron, "Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.' " (Exodus 7:8-9 LSB)
Pharaoh's demand for a "miraculous wonder" is not the request of an honest seeker. This is the arrogance of a man who believes he is the arbiter of reality. He is saying, "Impress me. Audition for me. Show me why this Yahweh of yours is worthy of my attention." Pharaoh sees himself as the judge, and Yahweh as the defendant. This is the posture of every unbelieving system. They put God in the dock and demand that He justify Himself according to their standards.
But God is not playing Pharaoh's game. He is not going to perform a series of arbitrary tricks to entertain the court. The sign He provides is not random; it is a meticulously chosen declaration of war. He tells them to take the staff and throw it down to become a serpent. The serpent, particularly the cobra, was a primary symbol of Pharaoh's power and divinity. The Uraeus on the crown of the Pharaoh was a cobra, representing his authority, his sovereignty, his ability to strike down his enemies. God is saying, "You think the serpent is your symbol of power? I will make one for you out of a dead piece of wood. I will show you that your power is a creature, a prop, something I can create and control at will." This is not an appeal; it is an invasion.
The Divine Mockery and the Demonic Reply (v. 10-12a)
Moses and Aaron obey, and the battle is joined.
"So Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and thus they did just as Yahweh had commanded; and Aaron threw his staff down before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers, and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did the same with their secret arts." (Exodus 7:10-11 LSB)
Aaron throws down the staff, and it becomes a serpent. The word here is tannin, which can mean a great sea monster, a dragon, or a serpent. It is a symbol of primordial power and chaos. God demonstrates that He is sovereign even over the forces of chaos that the Egyptians both feared and worshipped. He creates this symbol of fearsome power from a shepherd's walking stick, an object of utter humility.
But then comes the countermove. Pharaoh is not impressed. He calls for his own spiritual heavyweights, his wise men and sorcerers. And we must not imagine that these were charlatans performing cheap parlor tricks. The text says plainly that they "did the same with their secret arts." This was real power. This was demonic power. The devil is not an atheist; he is a rival theologian. He has real, though limited and derivative, power. Paul warns us of the "signs and lying wonders" of the lawless one (2 Thess. 2:9). The kingdom of darkness is capable of mimicking the power of God in order to deceive. This is why we must never be impressed with raw power alone. The question is not "Is it supernatural?" but "What is its source and what is its end?"
The magicians cast down their staffs, and they too become serpents. For a moment, it looks like a stalemate. It appears to be Yahweh's power versus Egypt's power, one god against many. This is exactly what Pharaoh wants to see. He wants to reduce Yahweh to just another deity to be managed, another power to be balanced in his political pantheon. This is the great temptation of syncretism, to put Jesus on the shelf next to Buddha and Oprah and call it enlightenment.
The Decisive Devouring (v. 12b)
But this is not a stalemate. The illusion of parity is shattered in the second half of verse 12.
"But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs." (Exodus 7:12b LSB)
This is the punchline, and it is glorious. God's serpent does not just defeat the other serpents. It does not fight them to a draw. It eats them. It consumes them entirely. The message could not be clearer. Yahweh's reality is not compatible with other realities; it swallows them. His power is not one among many; it is absolute and all-consuming. There is no negotiation between Christ and chaos. There is no truce between the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of men. One will ultimately devour the other.
This is a picture of the gospel. The power of the resurrection does not coexist with the power of sin and death. It swallows it. The righteousness of Christ does not supplement our own pathetic attempts at goodness. It consumes them and replaces them. The kingdoms of this world are not destined to continue alongside the kingdom of our Lord. They are destined to become the kingdom of our Lord. This is total, all-consuming victory. God is not interested in a seat at the table of the world's religions. He intends to kick the table over and eat all the other gods for lunch.
The Judicial Hardening (v. 13)
Pharaoh sees this undeniable demonstration of absolute superiority, and his response is instructive.
"Yet Pharaoh's heart was hardened with strength, and he did not listen to them, as Yahweh had spoken." (Exodus 7:13 LSB)
Notice the sequence. He sees the miracle. He sees the counterfeit. And he sees his counterfeit get utterly humiliated and devoured. The evidence is overwhelming. And what is his response? He digs in. His heart was "hardened with strength." The Hebrew verb here, chazaq, means to be strong, to be firm. In the face of God's manifest glory, Pharaoh's response is to double down on his rebellion.
This is what the Bible means by a hardened heart. It is not that God takes a neutral, pliable man and zaps him with a ray gun to make him evil. God's hardening is a judicial act. He gives rebels over to the rebellion they have already chosen. The same sun that melts wax hardens clay. The same glorious presence of God that softens the heart of the penitent hardens the heart of the proud. Pharaoh's heart was already a lump of rebellious clay, and when the heat of God's glory was applied, it simply baked into a brick, becoming what it already was by nature.
And notice the final clause: "as Yahweh had spoken." This was no surprise to God. This was not Plan B. God's plan included Pharaoh's rebellion. God's sovereignty is so absolute that it extends even over the sinful choices of His enemies. He weaves their defiant "no" into the tapestry of His triumphant "yes." He raised Pharaoh up for this very purpose, to show His power in him, so that His name might be proclaimed in all the earth (Romans 9:17). The hardening of Pharaoh's heart was not a frustration of God's plan; it was a fulfillment of it.
The Serpent on the Pole
This entire scene is a preview of a greater conflict and a greater victory. The serpent is the symbol of the curse, the emblem of our ancient enemy who brought sin and death into the world in the garden. Here, God takes that very symbol and uses it to demonstrate His power over the enemies of His people.
This points us forward to the ultimate serpent-handling. It points us to the cross of Jesus Christ. On the cross, God took our sin, our curse, our death, and He placed it upon His own Son. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness to heal the Israelites, "so must the Son of Man be lifted up" (John 3:14). God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21). Jesus became the curse for us. He became the serpent on the pole.
And in that great and terrible transaction, Christ's staff swallowed up all the others. On the cross, He disarmed the principalities and powers, making a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them (Col. 2:15). He swallowed up death in victory. He consumed the power of the serpent, the devil. The power of the state that crucified Him, the power of the false religion that condemned Him, the power of the demonic realm that assailed Him, the power of sin that He bore for us, all of it was devoured in the glorious victory of His death and resurrection.
The contest in Pharaoh's court continues today. The world throws down its serpents of political power, sexual rebellion, and technological pride. And the Church holds up a simple wooden cross. To the world, it is foolishness. It is a dead stick. But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. It is the staff that becomes the serpent that swallows every other serpent, until every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.