Smoke & Mirrors - Exodus 7
Many of you know that I used to be a magician as a young lad. I spent my summers entertaining at birthday parties and doing "illusions" for churches, schools and organizations. Once at a high school show, a woman approached me and began rebuking me for doing "magic." "This is an abomination to God," she said. She went on for several minutes about how I was dabbling in the occult and doing evil for my father, the devil. The interesting thing was, this particular show was for an evangelistic organization and I was telling the HS kids about God through my show.
I asked her if she had a $1 bill. Puzzled, she got a strange look on her face and reached in her pocket and produced the dollar. I folded it up very carefully in to a small wad, then slowly unfolded it. When I finished unfolding it, it had become a $100 bill - right in front of her eyes - no hands in the pockets, no faerie dust! Well, she was beaming with excitement and took the money and ran off skipping along the way.
Isn't it amazing how you can think of the perfect response after the fact? Don't you wish you could think of clever responses when needed? I was just kidding about the whole thing with the $100 bill. I know that illusion, but I didn't learn it until a few years later, and I didn't perform it for her. Unfortunately for her, she didn't suddenly find herself $99 richer and skip happily into the sunset.
Look at the Pharaoh's magicians in this chapter. They respond to Moses's miracles with like "miracles." I'm not sure if they performed "illusions" like I used to. Perhaps they had a snake "load" (a term magicians use to indicate a hidden dove, rabbit or snake [?] in a concealed pouch that they produce at just the right moment for effect) or perhaps they performed actual transformations from wood to water moccasin, as my female "fan" would say, with the help of their father, the devil.
Either way, God's snake ate the other. God's miracles are real and forever. His promises endure. He is faithful. No matter what the world or the devil can offer, it's all just smoke and mirrors compared to the matchless provision of our God.
Do you need a miracle?
peace,
e
