“When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, Shew a miracle for you: then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent.”
When Pharaoh says to you, perform a miracle, then say to Aaron: take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh, and it will become a snake. God anticipates Pharaoh's demand for credentials — show me something. The prepared sign is the staff-to-serpent transformation Moses was first given at the burning bush in Exodus 4:3. What was given privately as authentication for Israel is now performed publicly as authentication before the world's most powerful ruler. Matthew 12:39 records Jesus refusing to give a sign to a wicked and adulterous generation, but the context of Exodus is different: Pharaoh is not a seeker whose faith will be strengthened; he is a ruler who will be publicly and judicially confronted. The sign is not for his conversion but for his condemnation and the liberation of Israel.
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