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Imagine me walking up to you with three random coins from around the world. They lay in my open hand. I ask you to place your finger upon one coin. You think hard and drop your finger upon the coin of your choice. I open the displayed paper in which I wrote my prediction and it matches your free choice . . . impossible!
You will look up at my eyes, step back, shake your head and laugh. I know because I have done it a thousand times. You will not think I have any supernatural abilities, but you will be amazed at the unexplainable moment.
Now let me take you into a jungle area, where it is murky and we sit around a fire. A dark man in feathers and bells steps forward with three eggs of different colors. He stares at you and thrusts his hand into your face. People around you scream and shout. You are to reach out and grab one of the eggs. As you extend your arm, the people go silent. You pick up the red one. He quickly crushes the other two in his grip, rubs his hands together and only red drips from his hands. It is your chosen color. The crowd explodes in excitement as the man places his dripping red hands upon your head . . . impossible!
You freak out. You refuse to look into his eyes. You look to someone for some kind of help. Fear replaces amazement and you write home about this supernatural event.
Same trick . . . but a different atmosphere!
The coins and eggs were in the hands of people skilled in the art of illusion. I entertained and you laughed. The other, through natural means, manipulated your mind and emotions. Fear and mystery caused you see it as paranormal and you chose to believe the person had supernatural abilities. You even retold the story several times.
The impossible . . . fooled twice, but lied to you once. The lie grew and was retold by many, as a supernatural fact.
I have heard so many people do this even with Bible stories. Take a look at a man called Moses. God had him perform several miracles, not illusions. The magicians of the time were asked to create the same effects, but they could only reproduce three. So people, even followers of Jesus, spread the lie that these magicians had supernatural abilities. But if people were to read on and use their brains they would see that they did not have supernatural abilities, only secrets.
Read the following verses and see how Moses refers to these events.
1. In Exodus 7:10-12 we are given the record of when God, through Aaron, and the magicians made snakes. I think rabbits or poodles would have been a better choice, but they make terrible sticks. Besides God, for some reason, likes using snakes. “So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the LORD commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts: Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs”. It wasn’t as if the magicians were standing there. They had time to get ready. I wonder what was slithering up their sleeves or what secret science project made their snakes paralyzed. I think it was drugs because they were so high that they didn’t even move away when one snake ate them all. I think God won this match. To bad for those magicians who had trained those snake to act like a stick for several years. Well they are now unemployed . . . actually dead!
2. Exodus 7:22 comes right after God, not Moses, turned the water in the Nile into blood. Oh why not cookies and cream ice cream? “But the Egyptian magicians did the same things by their secret arts, and Pharaoh’s heart became hard; he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said”. To this I say, easy, easy, easy! If everything is blood just go with it man. I think the miracle would have been to find water that was not blood. It is not too difficult for a crafty deceiver to make this happen.
3. Next we have frogs of God everywhere. Imagine the amount of tadpoles God needed to pull this off, and where did He keep them until their grand entrance? That is a supernatural occurrence. Exodus 8:7 “But the magicians did the same things by their secret arts; they also made frogs come up on the land of Egypt”. Now if I get this right God makes several million frogs, so that they are everywhere. I love frog legs, they taste like little chickens. So if you open a jar one jumps out. If I reach in my pocket out comes another. Just kick a bunch of dirt upon the shore and say, “Abra-come-invertabrae” and those frogs are going to stick their heads up because they are stepping upon their mother-in-law. Buy the instructions for this trick at the dollar store.
4. Finally the magicians meet their match. God created gnats, those nasty winged bugs that go right up the nose. The magicians could not stop sneezing long enough to catch a few thousand for a really good trick. You try it, go try to catch 10 (and they did not even have vacuums back then). Exodus 8:18-19 states,“But when the magicians tried to produce gnats by their secret arts, they could not. And the gnats were on men and animals. The magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart was hard and he would not listen, just as the LORD had said”. The finger of God! If it is just the finger imagine what He could do with his whole hand. What the magicians were saying is that there is more paranormal in one finger of God than all the magicians of Egypt. And for once I agree with them.
5. But God was not done with this deceptive lot of Charlatans. Exodus 9:11 makes it very clear, “The magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils that were on them and on all the Egyptians”. OK boys what’s up your sleeve now? Perhaps it is the same thing that is up your pant leg? Boils are terrible, I can’t even imagine trying to multiply them. Happy scratching!
6. Finally we understand why God had this supernatural contest with the un-supernatural magicians. Exodus 9:16 “But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth”. In Exodus 14:31 after crossing the red sea this is recorded, “And when the Israelites saw the great power the LORD displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant”.
So if these “wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians” are the best of the best, they are in the same league as the jungle man. They all have secret arts, but not supernatural abilities. We shall continue our search, but thus far God leaves them all in the gnats . . . literally.
Living in a world of wonder with eyes wide open,
Dan Potter
