Beginning of the End - Ellen G. White

Again Moses and Aaron entered the lordly halls of the king of
Egypt. There stood the two representatives of the enslaved race,
surrounded by tall columns, glittering adornments, amid the rich
paintings and sculptured images of heathen gods. The king
demanded a miracle as evidence of their divine commission. Aaron
now took the rod and threw it down before Pharaoh, and it became a
serpent. The monarch then sent for his "wise men and the sorcerers,"
and "every man threw down his rod, and they became serpents. But
Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods." The king, more determined
than before, declared that his magicians were equal in power with
Moses and Aaron. He accused the servants of the Lord as being
impostors, yet was kept back by divine power from hurting them.
Satan's Counterfeits
The magicians did not really cause their rods to become
serpents, but by magic, helped by the great deceiver, they were able
to produce this appearance. The prince of evil possesses all the
wisdom and might of a fallen angel, but he has no power to create or
to give life--this is God's right alone. Satan produced a counterfeit.
To human sight the rods had changed to serpents. This is what
Pharaoh and his court believed them to be. Though the Lord caused
the real serpent to swallow up the false ones, Pharaoh did not regard
this as a work of God's power, but as the result of a kind of superior
magic.
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