According to Ginzberg's retelling in Legends of the Jews, the day Moses and Aaron made their grand entrance was actually Pharaoh's birthday. Can you imagine the pomp and circumstance? He was surrounded by kings from all corners of the earth, come to pay their respects. When Moses and Aaron were announced, Pharaoh, expecting lavish gifts, was less than impressed when he found they brought none. So, he initially refused to even see them until after all the other dignitaries had paid their respects. Talk about making an entrance, or rather, not making one.
Now, Pharaoh's palace wasn't exactly a walk in the park. It was surrounded by a massive army. We're talking four hundred entrances, a hundred on each side, each guarded by sixty thousand soldiers. Moses and Aaron were understandably intimidated. But then, the angel Gabriel appears! He guides them into the palace, unseen by the guards. It's like something out of a movie. Pharaoh, furious at the lax security, punishes the guards, but the next day, the same thing happens. Moses and Aaron are inside again, the new guards clueless as to how they got there. The servants whisper, "They must be magicians!"
And the security didn't stop at soldiers. Oh no. At each entrance, two lions stood guard, terrifying anyone who dared approach. According to the tale, you couldn’t even get near the doors until a lion tamer came and led the beasts away. Balaam, yes, that Balaam, and the other sacred scribes of Egypt advised Pharaoh to unleash the lions on Moses and Aaron. But it was all for naught. Moses simply raised his rod, and the lions, instead of attacking, bounded toward him, acting like playful puppies!
Inside the palace, Moses and Aaron found seventy secretaries, fluent in seventy languages, dealing with Pharaoh's vast correspondence. At the sight of them, the secretaries were awestruck. The story paints a vivid picture: Moses and Aaron were like angels, tall as cedars, their faces radiant, their eyes like morning stars, their beards like palm branches, their voices like flames. Understandably, the secretaries dropped their pens and prostrated themselves before them.
Then, Moses and Aaron delivered their message: "The God of the Hebrews hath met with us; let us go, we pray thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice unto the Lord our God, lest He fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword." Pharaoh's response? He basically said, "Who's your God? What's He good for? How many wars has He won?"
Moses and Aaron replied, explaining that God's power fills the whole world. His voice shatters mountains, heaven is His throne, earth His footstool. As we find in Midrash Rabbah, His bow is fire, His arrows flames, and so on. He created everything, sustains everything, and controls life and death.
Pharaoh, unimpressed, boasted about the Nile, claiming it was superior. He then had his scribes search the chronicles of all the nations for the name of the God of the Hebrews. Finding nothing, he declared, "I do not find your God inscribed in the archives!" Moses and Aaron retorted, "You seek the Living in the graves of the dead! These are dumb idols, but our God is the God of life!"
When Pharaoh declared, "I know not the Lord," God Himself responded, promising to show Pharaoh His power so that His name would be declared throughout the earth. The stage was set for the plagues.
Even after Aaron turned his rod into a serpent, Pharaoh wasn't convinced. He summoned his magicians, including Balaam and his sons Jannes and Jambres. Pharaoh mocked Moses and Aaron, saying he was an expert in magic. He even had schoolchildren replicate the miracle.
To show that Aaron could do something the Egyptian magicians couldn't, God caused Aaron's serpent to swallow all the magicians' serpents. But Balaam and his crew dismissed it as natural. They challenged Moses to have his rod, as wood, swallow their rods of wood. Aaron did just that, and yet, Aaron's rod didn't increase in size. This made Pharaoh pause, wondering if this rod might swallow him and his throne!
Despite all this, Pharaoh remained stubborn, refusing to let the Israelites go. He even said that if he had Jacob himself, he would put him to work. To Moses and Aaron, he scoffed, "Because ye, like all the rest of the tribe of Levi, are not compelled to labor, therefore do ye speak, 'Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.' If you had asked for a thousand people, or two thousand, I should have fulfilled your request, but never will I consent to let six hundred thousand men go away."
What strikes me most about this story is the sheer audacity of Pharaoh and the unwavering faith of Moses and Aaron. It's a reminder that even in the face of overwhelming power, standing up for what's right, for what God commands, is always the path to take. And sometimes, it takes a little divine intervention, maybe even an angel or two, to get you through the palace gates.