And thou shalt say unto him, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness: and, behold, hitherto thou wouldest not hear."
With the debut Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and the condemnation of such by the new Pope, perhaps we can ask a simple question that any child would ask if they are raised on the many fantastic stories of the Bible. What's the difference between the Wizardry of Harry Potter and that of Moses, Elijah, Jesus, the Apostles and Paul? It's a short answer for a kid... none.
As with hearing voices in the head, if it is in the Bible, it is the voice of God. If it is from a religious person, it may be the voice of God or it may be the voice of a mental condition that needs to be addressed. If it is from a nonbeliever, it is the voice of Satan or definitely mental illness.
But it is a legitimate question and one that any modern child or teen has every right to ask adult fundamentalists and evangelically smitten Christians.
From the account of Moses turning his staff into a serpent, to Aaron matching the tricks of Egyptian Sorcerers, we have what appears to be for all intent and purposes a war between the Wizards. Of course Moses wins and his serpent/staff eats up their serpent/staffs. Next we go on to Moses turning the waters of Egypt into "blood" to be matched by the Wizards of Egypt. Obviously Moses left a little for them to play with as well but for the life of me the best trick would have seemed to be the Wizards turning Moses "blood" BACK into water! Guess they weren't thinking!
From here we, of course go on to, frogs, gnats, flies, diseases, boils, hail, locusts, darkness and killing of innocent children.
Say unto Aaron, Stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt. 6 And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt. 7 And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt.
Ex. 8:5-6
Frogs are a nice touch, and add eye of newt to the mix and we are back with Harry.
I suppose we would have to get a good mental picture of this "stretching forth" of hands over the rivers etc to get the same picture of Harry Potter doing much the same, with his wand, in his exploits, but what is the difference? In practical fact, none or certainly not much.
The Wizards of Egypt, like a bad movie script, duplicate the trick rather than undo it. Come on boys, wake up use the force for the good of Egypt! Of course, it would seem that duplicating an act that has already occurred is much easier, in some way, than undoing it. We never really hear just how the water turned blood, eventually turned back to pure drinkable water again. I guess it just cleared up.
One of the more questionable results of animal disease, hail, fire and destruction of animal feed by locusts etc, is that all the cattle and all the beasts and horses die at least three times from what I can tell. They are either diseased, beaten into pulp or starved by the Wizardry of Moses through Aaron. The Wizards of Egypt simply can't compete. They finally wake up and don't kill more animals at least, but can't get the dead ones back either...but wait...maybe they do!
Behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain. 4 And the LORD shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt: and there shall nothing die of all that is the children's of Israel. 5 And the LORD appointed a set time, saying, To morrow the LORD shall do this thing in the land. 6 And the LORD did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died: but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one
Exodus 9:3-6
It does appear all the horses died as well along with the cattle. But.....
"And he made ready his chariot, and took his people with him: 7 And he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of them. 8 And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel: and the children of Israel went out with an high hand. 9 But the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea"
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