Dear sir,<\/p>\n
I read the article above.\u00a0I wanted to know why the Egyptian magicians added to the problem of frogs rather than removed them.\u00a0You said they could not remove them, but have given no logical explanation why they could not.\u00a0In regard to the snakes you said and I quote ” All it would take is a collapsible cane being switched by sleight of hand with a cataleptic snake to accomplish this apparent miracle.” “Sleight of hand,” I think, assumes the magicians knew before hand what Moses was going to do. They would have needed to practice this to pull it off. The Bible doesn’t tell us that Moses discussed his plans with anyone other than God.<\/p>\n
What say ye?<\/p>\n\t
Consider that it is God who knew in advance what the Egyptian magicians’ favorite tricks were like. God instructs Moses to conduct a true miracle in front of these magicians that looked similar to their own (Exodus 7:8-13). Of course, when Moses threw down the staff and it became a snake, the magicians took that as a challenge and performed their own trick. But then Moses’ snake swallows all of their snakes! And in the end, Moses picks up his snake by its tail (the wrong way to pick up any snake if you don’t wish to be bitten) and it returns to being a staff. The Egyptian magicians were bested by God at their own trick, but it was close enough to one that Pharaoh had seen before that he was able to dismiss it, which was what God wanted Pharaoh to do. God was aiming to prove to the world that He alone was God and He desired Pharaoh to be stubborn and unbelieving in the face of the progressive demonstrations of God’s power and complete control.<\/p>\n
Also, notice that while it is tempting to read this account as everything happening immediately, Exodus 7:11 says that after Moses’ staff becomes a serpent that Pharaoh sent for his wise men and sorcerers, implying that they weren’t present at that moment. They, in turn, sent for the magicians who then did their trick. There was time for them to gather up their equipment.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Dear sir, I read the article above.\u00a0I wanted to know why the Egyptian magicians added to the problem of frogs rather than removed them.\u00a0You said they could not remove them, but have given no logical explanation why they could not.\u00a0In regard to the snakes you said and I quote ” All it would take…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[484,363,485],"class_list":["post-36950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-exodus","tag-miracles","tag-moses"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":23853,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/were-the-egyptian-magicians-able-to-do-real-miracles\/","url_meta":{"origin":36950,"position":0},"title":"Were the Egyptian magicians able to do real miracles?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 18, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I want to know if the Egyptian magicians did real miracles or did they appear to do so by the means of a tonic to immobilize the snakes? Also did the witch at Endor really summon Samuel or was it an illusion? Answer: It might seem that the Egyptian\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":52960,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-progress-of-the-hypocrite\/","url_meta":{"origin":36950,"position":1},"title":"The Progress of the Hypocrite","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 7, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Matthew W. Bassford The first nine verses of 2 Timothy 3 contain one of the most brutal condemnations of the wicked in the entire New Testament. However, its subject does not appear to be people in the world. Instead, it describes Christians who have been corrupted by the world.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/mask-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":26104,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/could-stephen-be-making-moses-out-to-be-bigger-than-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":36950,"position":2},"title":"Could Stephen be making Moses out to be bigger than life?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I know from Acts 7 it is said that Moses knew he was a Hebrew prior to the burning bush event.\u00a0 What is your take on the possibilities that this was based on the Jewish tradition?\u00a0 Acts was written by Paul who was brought up a Pharisee and in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32174,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-the-bible-assume-gods-existence\/","url_meta":{"origin":36950,"position":3},"title":"Does the Bible Assume God’s Existence?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 17, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Kenneth J. Wells Sentry Magazine, March 2002 \"And the angel of Jehovah appeared unto him in aflame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will turn aside\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21114,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-moses-strike-the-rock-twice-and-what-was-aarons-participation\/","url_meta":{"origin":36950,"position":4},"title":"Why did Moses strike the rock twice and what was Aaron’s participation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 27, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why did Moses strike the rock twice and what was Aaron's participation? Answer: \"So Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and they fell on their faces. And the glory of the LORD appeared to them. Then the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24582,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-aaron-make-the-golden-calf\/","url_meta":{"origin":36950,"position":5},"title":"Why did Aaron make the golden calf?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 20, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why did Aaron make the golden calf right after God had spoken the ten commandments to the Israelites? Answer: When confronted by Moses regarding his sin, Aaron blamed the people into pressuring him. \"You know the people, that they are set on evil\" (Exodus 32:22). He blamed Moses for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36950\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}