The credentials of God's ambassadors to the froward.
I. THE DEMANDS OF GOD, THOUGH REJECTED, CANNOT BE BANISHED. The rod which Pharaoh refuses to be shepherded by, cast down before him, springs into life. To those who refuse obedience to God's Word, that Word will cling and become a living thing. Israel thought to have done with God and to be like the heathen: it was a vain dream. Pharaoh would shake off care, and become like one of whom God had asked nothing: the dream was equally vain. We may deny God, but his words will live and pursue us.
II. THE REJECTED GUIDANCE WILL BE THE DESTRUCTION OF THE FROWARD. The rod cast from the hand becomes a serpent. The vain demand for righteousness will at last become the sentence of condemnation, and the sin that is clung to, the sting of death.
III. THE WARNING BECOMES THE LOUDER, THE GREATER THE EFFORT TO DEADEN ITS EFFECT. The rods of the magicians were swallowed up and the rod of God left more terrible than it was before. The Divine retribution will swallow up every comfort and stay which the sinful may summon to sustain them.—U.