S144P1 – When worlds collide: staffs to serpents to nothing
Exo. 7:8-12
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. Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts. For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs.
I was a freshman in college, and I had completely lost direction in life. I was lost spiritually, and that set the stage for all kinds of disasters and disappointments. I had so many questions about what was ahead for me, so I started talking to a psychic. I remember going downtown with friends to see a woman and have her read my cards. Then, she came to our school for an event and spoke to me more about my future. No matter what she told me was ahead in life, I wanted to know more. When I review those words of hers now, the only thing that rings true is the fact that none of it was right. She could not see what was ahead for me and the Lord who was calling me to him.
We cannot discuss enough the counterfeit world that the devil tries to create around us to deceive and destroy. These staffs that turned to serpents through some kind of dark magic were really nothing. They had no power. They did not come from a place of authority. They appeared to be authentic, but they were not. When those serpents encountered that which came from the work of God, they were devoured. That dark influence was destroyed, and it was exposed as a simple fraud. The men Moses and Aaron faced had more influence and power than they had in Egypt, but that did not matter. Moses and Aaron operated not in their own power but in the power of God, and He always holds the trump card.
The devil has many schemes in this world, but we can take solace in the fact that each and every one of those schemes will be exposed for what it is. Each of those works of darkness will be destroyed in time. What happened in the court of Pharaoh is just an example of what is eventual for every dark plan of the enemy. None of it can prevail because the truth of God’s power must prevail. Nothing that stands against his power can remain for longer than a short time, and there will come a day when every other power must be put down for good. Father, thank You for the confidence we draw from your promise and your proof that You always will prevail.