Becca Harbert

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Creation vs Imitation

Only God creates. The devil only imitates. Exodus tells about the Israelites being set free from slavery in Egypt. Moses and his brother Aaron approached the Pharaoh with a staff that could turn into a snake! Sounds impressive, but the Pharaoh’s magicians did the same thing with their staffs. However, Aaron’s staff snake gobbled up the other staff snakes. God’s creation, while imitated, was still not as good as the original. (Exodus 7:10-12)

Moses and Aaron also used their staff from the Lord to turn the Nile River into blood and to have frogs come upon the land (Exodus 7:20-22, 8:5-7). Again, impressive! Yet the Bible tells us that the magicians did the same thing with their evil arts.

The magicians only imitated what Moses and Aaron did. They could not do anything different! They could not fix the problems.

“Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said, ‘Entreat the Lord that He remove the frogs from me and from my people…” (Exodus 8:8a). The Pharaoh did not call his magicians to fix the problem. He called on those who followed God.

Then the Lord had Moses and Aaron bring gnats on the land. “The magicians tried with their secret arts to bring forth gnats, but they could not; so there were gnats on man and beast. Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, ‘This is the finger of God…’” (Exodus 8:18-19a). It’s as if the Lord allowed the magicians to imitate Him before, but only so far. When it came to gnats and the rest of the ten plagues, the magicians had no power. Imitations are never as good as the real thing.

God often calls people to do things no one has ever done before. Harriet Tubman was a slave in America who longed to be free. Following the Lord meant risking her life to run away to freedom. Continuing to follow the Lord meant continuing to risk her life in order to free the rest of her family and many others. She made 19 trips to the South freeing over 300 slaves. Each time she had to go a new way so as not to get caught. She was called the Moses of her day.

What about you? What do you feel God calling you to that feels unique? Are you called to be a stay at home mom? To homeschool? To be a working mom? To start a business or ministry or podcast? Write a book or musical? God has created you in a unique way for a unique purpose. Use your God given gifts to follow His unique and creative lead.

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