Exodus 7: The Constant that Swallows Variables, the True Sign of Miracles

Exodus 7: The Constant that Swallows Variables, the True Sign of Miracles

"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 ... Yet Pharaoh's heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the Lord had said ... 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." (Ex 7:9, 13, 22, NIV)

In ancient societies, the existence of gods was measured by miracles. Things that humans could not do were considered to be the realm of gods, and that became the work of gods. However, Exodus 7 creates a crack in this formula. This is because the Egyptian sorcerers were able to mimic the miracle of the staff becoming a snake and the plague of water turning into blood, which were performed by God. Turning wood into a snake and water into blood is impossible even with 21st-century science, but the sorcerers of that time were able to do it. If the criterion of a miracle is simply human impossibility or supernatural phenomena, God's uniqueness is not proven in this confrontation.

We often call it a "miracle" when we see a scene or something that I cannot do, trying to confirm the presence of God. However, if we entrust God's existence to the presence or absence of miracles, we become a fool who doesn't even know 0.1% of God, turning Him on and off like a switch. God is a "Constant" who is always present beyond our cognitive realm, like invisible air and the sound of the Earth's rotation that we cannot hear. God is not someone whose existence flickers according to a miracle show.

Then why did God first pull out the cards of the staff and blood that humans can also imitate? The Bible shows that this event is not a simple physical confrontation (Fact) but a sign with theological meaning (Meaning). The key is not in the change, but in the swallowing. "Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs. (v. 12)" This is not God destroying the laws of the world, but a scene where He swallows and neutralizes the world's highest authority (snakes) and technology (sorcery) into His own order. The plague of the Nile River turning into blood is the same. The sorcerers could not demonstrate the ability to heal by turning the blood back into clear water. They only mimicked the destruction of turning clean water into blood. The author is accusing that evil is, at best, a powerless being that intensifies God's judgment. When the Nile turned into death, the Egyptians did not seek God or ask the Israelites for help, but dug the ground around the riverbank to get water. It is the persistent stubbornness and foolishness of humans who dig the earth (variable) to find their own way to live even when the heavens (constant) are closed.

Therefore, we should focus on the fact that Aaron's snake swallowed the sorcerers' snakes, rather than the staff turning into a snake. The meaning that emerges from this is why God had this miracle performed before the full-fledged plagues, and why the author placed it before the first plague of blood. All of these records are the Truth that goes beyond the Fact. A miracle is not magic where the impossible happens. A miracle is a sign in which the unchanging constant of God intervenes in the fluctuating variables of human history, swallowing up false authority and revealing true order. We finally become healthy believers when we see God, who is pointed to by the phenomena, not the phenomena that are visible to our eyes."