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.
The day Moses and Aaron made their appearance before Pharaoh happened to be the anniversary of his birth, and he was surrounded by many kings, for he was the ruler of the whole world, and this was the occasion on which the kings of the earth came to do him homage. When the attendants announced Moses and Aaron, Pharaoh inquired whether the two old men had brought him crowns, and, receiving a negative reply, he ordered that they were not to be admitted to his presence, until he had seen and dismissed all the others desirous of paying him their respects. Pharaoh's palace was surrounded by a vast army. It was built with four hundred entrances, one hundred on each side, and each of them guarded by sixty thousand soldiers. Moses and Aaron were overawed by this display of power, and they were afraid. But the angel Gabriel appeared, and he led them into the palace, observed by none of the guards, and Pharaoh decreed severe punishment upon the inattentive sentinels for having admitted the old men without his permission. They were dismissed, and others put in their places. But the same thing happened the next day. Moses and Aaron were within the palace, and the new guard had not been able to hinder their passing. Pharaoh questioned his servants, how it had been possible for the two old men to enter, and they said: "We know it not! Through the doors they did not come. Surely, they must be magicians." Not enough that the palace was guarded by a host, at each entrance two lions were stationed, and in terror of being torn to pieces none dared approach the doors, and none could go within until the lion tamer came and led the beasts away. Now Balaam and all the other sacred scribes of Egypt advised that the keepers loose the lions at the approach of Moses and Aaron. But their advice availed naught. Moses had but to raise his rod, and the lions bounded toward him joyously, and followed at his feet, gambolling like dogs before their master on his return home. Within the palace, Moses and Aaron found seventy secretaries busy with Pharaoh's correspondence, which was carried on in seventy languages. At the sight of the messengers of Israel, they started up in great awe, for the two men resembled angels. In stature they were as the cedars of Lebanon, their countenances radiated splendor like the sun, the pupils of their eyes were like the sphere of the morning star, their beards like palm branches, and their mouths emitted flames when they opened them for speech. In their terror, the secretaries flung down pen and paper, and prostrated themselves before Moses and Aaron. Now the two representatives of the children of Israel stepped before Pharaoh, and they spake, "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." But Pharaoh answered, saying: "What is the name of your God? Wherein doth His strength consist, and His power? How many countries, how many provinces, how many cities hath He under His dominion? In how many campaigns was He victorious? How many lands did He make subject to Himself? How many cities did He capture? When He goeth to war, how many warriors, riders, chariots, and charioteers doth He lead forth?" Whereto Moses and Aaron replied: "His strength and His power fill the whole world. His voice heweth out flames of fire; His words break mountains in pieces. The heaven is His throne, and the earth His footstool. His bow is fire, His arrows are flames, His spears torches, His shield clouds, and His sword lightning flashes. He created the mountains and the valleys, He brought forth spirits and souls, He stretched out the earth by a word, He made the mountains with His wisdom, He forms the embryo in the womb of the mother, He covers the heavens with clouds, at His word the dew and the rain descend earthward, He causes plants to grow from the ground, He nourishes and sustains the whole world, from the horns upon the rem down to the eggs of vermin. Every day He causes men to die, and every day He calls men into life." Pharaoh answered, and said: "I have no need of Him. I have created myself, and if ye say that He causes dew and rain to descend, I have the Nile, the river that hath its source under the tree of life, and the ground impregnated by its waters bears fruit so huge that it takes two asses to carry it. and it is palatable beyond description, for it has three hundred different tastes." Then Pharaoh sent to fetch the books of the chronicles of his kingdom from his archives, wherein are recorded the names of the gods of all the nations, to see whether the name of the God of the Hebrews was among them. He read off: "The gods of Moab, the gods of Ammon, the gods of Zidon—I do not find your God inscribed in the archives!" Moses and Aaron exclaimed: "O thou fool! Thou seekest the Living in the graves of the dead. These which thou didst read are the names of dumb idols, but our God is the God of life and the King of eternal life." When Pharaoh said the words, "I know not the Lord," God Himself made answer, saying: "O thou rascal! Thou sayest to My ambassadors, 'I know not the strength and the power of your God'? Lo, I will make thee to stand, for to show thee My power, and that My Name may be declared throughout all the earth." Having searched his list of the gods of the nations in vain for a mention of the God of the Hebrews, Pharaoh cited before him the wise men of Egypt, and he said to them: "Have ye ever heard the name of the God of these people?" They replied, "We have been told that He is a son of the wise, the son of ancient kings." Then spake God, saying, "O ye fools! Ye call yourselves wise men, but Me ye call only the son of the wise. Verily, I will set at naught all your wisdom and your understanding." Pharaoh persisted in his obduracy, even after Moses and Aaron had performed the miracle of the rod. At the time when the two Hebrews succeeded in entering the palace, guarded as it was by lions, Pharaoh had sent for his magicians, at their head Balaam and his two sons Jannes and Jambres, and when they appeared before him, he told them of the extraordinary incident, how the lions had followed the two old men like dogs, and fawned upon them. It was Balaam's opinion that they were simply magicians like himself and his companions, and he prayed the king to have them come before him together with themselves, to test who were the master magicians, the Egyptians or the Hebrews. Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and he said to them: "Who will believe you when you say that you are the ambassadors of God, as you pretend to be, if you do not convince men by performing wonders?" Thereupon Aaron cast his rod to the ground, and it became a serpent. Pharaoh laughed aloud. "What," he exclaimed, "is this all your God can do? It is the way of merchants to carry merchandise to a place if there is none of it there, but would anyone take brine to Spain or fish to Accho? It seems you do not know that I am an adept in all sorts of magic!" He ordered little school children to be brought, and they repeated the wonder done by Moses and Aaron; indeed, Pharaoh's own wife performed it. Jannes and Jambres, the sons of Balaam, derided Moses, saying, "Ye carry straw to Ephrain!" whereto Moses answered, "To the place of many vegetables, thither carry vegetables." To show the Egyptians that Aaron could do something with his rod that their magicians could not imitate, God caused the serpent into which His rod had been changed to swallow up all the rods of the magicians. But Balaam and his associates said: "There is nothing marvellous or astonishing in this feat. Your serpent has but devoured our serpents, which is in accordance with a law of nature, one living being devours another. If thou wishest us to acknowledge that the spirit of God worketh in thee, then cast thy rod to the earth, and if, being wood, it swallows up our rods of wood, then we shall acknowledge that the spirit of God is in thee." Aaron stood the test. After his rod had resumed its original form, it swallowed up the rods of the Egyptians, and yet its bulk showed no increase. This caused Pharaoh to reflect, whether this wonderful rod of Aaron might not swallow up also him and his throne. Nevertheless he refused to obey the behest of God, to let Israel go, saying, "Had I Jacob-Israel himself here before me, I should put trowel and bucket on his shoulder." And to Moses and Aaron, he said, "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."
