Free The Deliverer by Linda Rios Brook

cue, Pharaoh demanded proof that the God of Moses was real. “Perform a miracle,” he chided.
    Everyone in the room snickered. Moses turned to Aaron and told him to do what God had said. With trembling hands and closed eyes, Aaron threw his staff to the ground and prepared to run. It was the cumulative gasp from the eunuch slaves that caused him to open his eyes and jump back in disbelief at the writhing snake on the palace floor.
    With nary a raised eyebrow, Pharaoh summoned wise men, sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians to do the very same thing by their secret arts. Each one threw down his staff, and each staff became a snake. But to everyone’s amazement, Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. No one in the room was more surprised by this than Aaron. When Moses reached down and picked the serpent up by the tail and it turned back into a staff, there was a chorus of sighs of relief from every corner of the room. Ramses, however, pretended to be unimpressed. He ordered Moses and Aaron to leave.
    I was about to fly back to Satan’s lair to give him an update when it occurred to me that Moses and Aaron wouldn’t go home without reporting to God. I knew I’d better follow them lest I miss something. When they got to the city’s edge, they called out to God. I listened with both ears to what God told them to do next.
    “Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the water. Wait on the bank of the Nile to meet him. Take the staff that was changed into a snake, and say to him, ‘The God of the Hebrews has sent me to say to you, “Let My people go so that they may worship Me in the desert.”’ With the staff that is in your hand, strike the water of the Nile and it will be changed into blood. The fish in the Nile will die, the river will stink, and no one will be able to drink its water.
    “And you, Aaron, take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, the streams, canals, ponds and all the reservoirs, and they will turn to blood. Blood will be everywhere in Egypt.”
    Moses seemed to be taking it in fairly well, but Aaron was getting that woozy look again.
    As I flew back to the second heaven to report to Satan, I wondered how he was going to take this news that God had upped the stakes in the battle for the Hebrews. He was enabling mere humans to operate in the supernatural realm. I knew Satan would demand to know if this was legal. I wasn’t sure.
    He took the news much better than I thought he would.
    “So what? God’s losing His touch if that’s the best He can come up with. I can do the same thing.”
    He summoned two of his demons who were specialists in black magic and sent them to the quarters of the court magicians. The next day, Satan summoned all the demons to come and stand on the edge of the second heaven to watch the show. He was very smug about how this would turn out.
    There they were, Moses and Aaron, standing before a full house of spectators on the banks of the Nile. They did just as God had commanded. Aaron, with newfound confidence after the snake episode, raised his staff in the presence of Pharaoh and his officials and struck the water of the Nile, and all the water was changed into blood. The fish in the Nile died, and the river smelled so bad that the Egyptians couldn’t drink its water. Blood was everywhere in Egypt.
    “Well, all right, ” Aaron whispered to Moses as he nodded his head proudly at this new supernatural power he had obtained.
    But his satisfaction didn’t last long. The Egyptian magicians did the same things with jars of water by their secret arts. Now, right there is where Moses should have thrown down the yellow flag and yelled, “Foul.” Who did the magicians think they would fool with that old parlor trick? What unbiased observer would equate changing the waters of a river into blood with changing a couple of gallons in a primed jar? Obviously, the magicians tossed a little dye into the pots with all their gyrations and hocus pocus.