A new section (unofficially) begins in the Narrative starting in Exodus 7:8. Whereas the first several chapters are marked by suffering by God’s people and excuses by Moses, a nearly equal part (seven chapters) will be devoted to God’s liberation of the Israelites.
It all starts here, with a simple showdown between Moses and Pharaoh. This time, when God tells Moses and Aaron to go to Pharaoh, he complies immediately. Just as God tells them, Pharaoh asks for a sign to show their credentials, and Aaron throws down his staff, which turns into a serpent.
Not to be outdone, Pharaoh’s magicians—later identified by Paul as Jannes and Jambres (2 Timothy 3:8)—throw their staffs down, which also turn into snakes. They do it via their “secret arts,” which sounds like magic, but could also be chalked up to a simple understanding of serpent behavior.
The two miracles look identical, except for the fact that Aaron’s staff/serpent eats the sorcerer’s staff/serpents. This is rare; snake cannibalism is not very common in nature except within certain species. Because of this, some scholars believe that the word for Aaron’s staff/serpent would be better translated as dragon, implying some kind of more aggressive species.
I don’t speak Hebrew, so I’m unable to enunciate that point very clearly. However, I do think that Aaron’s staff eating the other snakes has a lot of significance. The most obvious is the show of dominance from Aaron (and ultimately God) towards the magicians (and ultimately Pharaoh).
But there’s something else here, too. If you fast forward to the end of the story in Exodus 14, we’ll see that eventually, God parts the waters of the Red Sea for the Israelites to walk through on dry land. The Egyptians try to follow, but God closes the waters and destroys them all.
Exodus 15 is a song from Moses that commemorates this event. One verse in particular stands out: “You [God] reached out with Your right hand; the earth swallowed them [Egyptians]” (Exodus 15:12). Sound familiar?
It wasn’t just that God showed His dominance over the Egyptians—the swallowing of the other snakes foreshadowed God’s ultimate victory over them as well. Just as Aaron’s staff swallowed up the staffs of the magicians, so God’s creation swallowed up the army of Egypt.
