- 7 - When he had grown to manhood, Christ spoke to him from the burning bush and appointed him as the leader of ‘God’s people’. Moses was called upon to perform, first of all, two tasks. One of these was to reveal himself to the enslaved Hebrews as God’s envoy, charged with the mission of leading them out of Egypt. His second task was to persuade Pharaoh to allow the Hebrews to leave his realm. Superhuman power was conferred upon Moses by Christ for the execution of these two tasks, but the evil spirits, seeing their annihilation plans thwarted, also appeared on the battle scene in full force and used the Egyptian sorcerers as their instruments. Then began the greatest battle among spirits ever fought on earth. On one side stood Christ with his good spirit world, and Moses as his visible champion; on the other, hell with its helpers, the Egyptian magicians. With the aid of God’s spirits, who stood invisible beside him, Moses performed the greatest miracles the world has ever seen apart from Christ. Moses thus hoped to convince both the Hebrew people and Pharaoh of the Divine nature of his mission. By these signs that took place before their eyes, God’s people were to be moved to obey Moses as their leader, and Pharaoh was to be induced to allow the Hebrews to depart. At first, and for the purpose of counteracting any effect Moses might produce upon Pharaoh and the people, the evil powers accomplished miracles similar to his, but before long their efforts began to fail, and the sorcerers themselves were forced to admit: ‘This is the finger of God.’ “Never had such mighty spirit materializations been witnessed as in this battle. • On Moses' side, a good spirit, dematerializing Moses' rod, changed into a serpent. • The same thing was done for the sorcerers by the evil spirits. • Entire hosts of spirits were materialized as frogs at Moses’ command. • and at the command of the sorcerers, low spirits did the same. • Moses turned the waters of the river to blood with the aid of God’s spirits. • And, with the help of the infernal powers, the sorcerers did the same. God allowed the wicked to exert their powers to the utmost of their ability, in order that, in the end, He might have the opportunity of showing His full omnipotence and thereby, above all, fortify the faith of the Israelites – for this was a life-and-death struggle in which the Hebrews, as God’s people, were the stakes. Israel was the first-born of the true faith; should it fall victim to hell, a long time would elapse before another people fit to take that part could arise among mankind. Christ, God’s first-born, fought against the first-born of hell on behalf of the first-born human bearers of the faith and of the hope of salvation. Christ was the victor. God’s avenging angel smote all of the first-born in Egypt, thus forcing the decision. Pharaoh and his people were seized with fear, and at the insistence of his own subjects he allowed the Hebrews to depart.
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