Exodus 7:12 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

For they cast down every man his rod— The ancient magicians were a species of profane conjurors, who, claiming Divine assistance, used frequently to contend with each other, in proof of the power of those deities whose assistance they claimed. That they were aided by the craft and subtlety of those diabolic beings, whom they idolized and worshipped, there can be no question, from the history of idolatry. But one would have thought, that the evident superiority of Moses and Aaron, discovered by their rod, (that is, the serpent, into which the rod was turned,) swallowing up the rods, i.e. the serpents of the magicians, would have convinced them, that the power by which these Israelites acted, was really divine. This was an evident prognostic of the event of the ensuing contest, wherein Jehovah vanquished and destroyed all the gods of Egypt in reality, as he did here in symbols. It has been remarked, that a serpent, in the Egyptian Hieroglyphics, denoted the Supreme Deity; see Euseb. Praep. Evang. lib. 1: &c. Some have supposed, and Josephus among the rest, that what the magicians produced, were only the appearances of serpents: but the text knows no such distinction. Nothing can be plainer, than that real serpents were produced by the magicians. "If it be asked," say the Authors of the Universal History, "why God suffered the magicians to act thus, by a power borrowed from the devil, in order, if possible, to invalidate those miracles which his servant wrought by his Divine power; the following reasons may be given for it: First, It was necessary that those magicians should be suffered to exert the utmost of their power against Moses, in order to clear him from the imputation of magic or sorcery: for, as the notion of such an extraordinary art was very rife, (and with good reason,) not only among the Egyptians, but all other nations; if they had not entered into this strenuous competition with him, and been at length overcome by him, both the Hebrews and Egyptians would have been apter to attribute all his miracles to his skill in magic, than to the Divine Power. Secondly, It was necessary, in order to confirm the faith of the wavering and desponding Israelites, by making them know the difference between Moses's acting by the power of GOD, and the sorcerers by that of Satan. And, lastly, in order to preserve them afterwards from being seduced, by any false miracles, from the true worship of God."