ONE day as Moses was leading Jethro's flocks near Mount Horeb, he saw a strange sight. A bush was on fire, but it did not burn up. So he went to see what it should mean.
As he came near, a voice from the bush said to him, "Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." Then Moses knew that it was the Lord who was talking to him from the bush.
The Lord told Moses that the time had come for the Israelites to go free from their bondage in Egypt. He told Moses to start for Egypt, and that his brother Aaron would meet him on the way and go with him.
They were then to go to Pharaoh and tell him that the God of Israel had sent them to him, and that he must let His people go. And he gave Moses wonderful signs to show to Pharaoh, so that he would know that God had sent them.
When Moses and Aaron came before Pharaoh and told him what the Lord had said, he answered, "Who is the Lord that I should let Israel go?" The Hebrew slaves were very valuable to the Egyptians, and they wanted to keep them, and make them do their hard work.
Pharaoh asked them to show a miracle to prove that their God had sent them. Then they performed one of the wonders that the Lord had given to Moses. Aaron cast down his rod, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh called in his sorcerers, who were wicked men claiming to have power to do wonderful things. He showed them what Aaron had done with his rod, and asked them if they could turn their rods into serpents.
Then the sorcerers cast down their rods, and they appeared to become serpents also. But while they were looking at them, Aaron's serpent swallowed the serpents of the sorcerers.
But the work of the sorcerers was only a deception of their master, the devil. God only could really give life to the staff of Aaron. Neither the devil nor his servants can give life to anything. But the sorcerers had deceived the people and made their work look like God's work.
By thus deceiving Pharaoh they destroyed the effect of God's miracle, and so the king's heart was hardened against letting Israel go. Satan is ever counterfeiting, or imitating, the work of God. He often makes his lies appear like God's truth. In this way he leads many away from God.