A Biblical Hebrew Deep Dive Into Satan's Counterfeit Power

Jane Isley
Jul 19
5 min read

The word Moses picked changes the whole story

There is a small but mighty passage in the Bible, and it’s basically ignored, and with the amount of deception satan is raining down on this world these days, I think it is time to pull this out and show you the very real and tangible power that satan has that so many underestimate.

“ Each one threw down his walking stick. Each stick turned into a snake.”₁

Plain Jane, It Was Not

Satan is the master of deception, illusion, and lies. What is going to make this dissection even more interesting is that you will learn it wasn’t regular, plain Jane snakes either that day.

In Hebrew, three different words are traditionally translated to “snake,” each one carries its own definition and meaning that helps you understand context and a story’s full depth.

This is most definitely one of those times you want to rabbit hole a word.

Nachash (נָחָשׁ) — the “regular” word for snake/serpent
Tannin (תַּנִּין) — dragon/sea monster/large serpent
Saraph (שָׂרָף) — “fiery/burning” serpent

Moses Chose His Words Deliberately

At the battle of the staffs, all the staffs involved turned into tannin, but before that, in Exodus 4:3, when God and Moses were essentially doing a practice run, Moses’s staff was referred to as a nachash. Moses wrote this, so it is not like two different people used the wrong words; he was there, and he chose his wording for a reason.

I don’t think, although I could be wrong, that these snakes turned into something physically different than normal; it's about what the word means, and this showdown comes down to two equally important things.

What Tannin Really Means

Tannin carries enormous weight to anyone who knows Scripture; it can be both literal (big aquatic creatures) or figurative (a primordial chaos creature, a symbol of darkness and forces in direct opposition to God). God created the tannin in Genesis 1:21, but satan cannot create, so what was going on here?

First, you have to understand this wasn’t some minor showdown. Not only did God transform a staff, but Pharaoh’s magicians did too; not only that, but they did it with more than one staff. So many against one.

And here is where this gets a chef’s kiss. God uses that same word later in Ezekiel 29:3 to describe Pharaoh: “Pharaoh Hophra, I am against you.King of Egypt, you are like a huge monster…”

So think about what happened that day, the magicians stood before Pharaoh and produced tannins, the same word God would later use to describe their own king. They were invoking the symbol of the man they served without even knowing it. And God’s tannin swallowed theirs whole.

Important Thing 1

Satan can and does manipulate our physical world and can perform “miracles.” Job is a prime example; not only did satan manipulate the environment around Job, but he also, at one point, caused a windstorm that brought down a building, killing all of Job’s children.

There's too much sugarcoating out there for my taste when it comes to people understanding this. Satan is more than capable of performing wonders and illusions that fool even the most educated people out there.

You realize satan will do as he is bidden to keep the lie and deception going that pulls you away from God, right?

Important Thing 2

Why did God turn the staff into what is considered a symbol of darkness? Because He owns it. Satan can only ever counterfeit what God created. The difference between the two that day wasn’t what appeared; it was the source behind it.

“So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind….”

One was a counterfeit manifestation of dark power from satan. The other was the real thing, called up by God who made it, and swallowed up the counterfeit versions.

Don’t Skip Past These Words

There are a couple of important Hebrew words to consider as you think about this interaction. Pharaoh didn’t ask for a “miracle” in the way we know them; he asked for a “wonder.” And Moses and Aaron’s staff didn’t eat the Pharaoh’s; it swallowed them.

Mopheth (מוֹפֵת) — Sign, wonder, miracle (an awe-producing, wonder specifically carrying the idea of intimidation; something that demands to be seen and cannot be ignored)
Oth (אוֹת) — Sign, token, mark, miracle (a sign that points to God; can be an ordinary object or event; its purpose is to direct attention toward God)

Think of it this way with these two. Oth is like a road sign, its entire purpose is to point you somewhere, aka God. And Mopheth is not a road sign. It is the thing that stops you dead in your tracks and makes your jaw drop before you can even think about where it’s pointing.

Oth can be any ordinary object or daily activity as well as an unexpected divine action, but its basic nature is always to point people to God. Mopheth describes God’s supernatural activity, a special manifestation of His power. But, and this is so important. False prophets can also perform Mopheth. Deuteronomy 13:1–3 specifically warns about this.

Pharaoh didn’t ask for a road sign pointing to God. He asked for a “mopheth, “ an overwhelming, awe-producing display of power; it was also a deliberate and cocky move on his part. (I’ll show you at the end God’s clap back to that one)

Bala (בָּלַע) — To swallow, engulf, consume (It is violent, engulfing, sudden, and the total elimination of something.)
Akal (אָכַל) — To eat, ate, eaten (the everyday word for eating food or the act of eating food)

Here’s the difference between these two words. Akal is what you do at dinner. It is the ordinary eating of food; something goes in, and then that something is gone. A person “akals” a meal. It is the everyday, regular word for one thing taking in another thing.

Now, Bala is something else entirely. Bala is what the Earth did when it opened up and swallowed Korah’s entire rebellion whole in Numbers 16. It is what the great fish did to Jonah. It is the word Moses chose in Exodus 15 when the Red Sea swallowed Pharaoh’s army. Bala means something ceases to exist in a sudden, violent, and very complete manner.

So when Moses wrote that Aaron’s staff “swallowed” the magicians’ staffs, he did not use the dinner table word. He used the annihilation word; it was a preview of what was to come.

Last But Not Least: The Epic Clap Back

“…Confront him on the bank of the Nile, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake.”²

No one is ever going to convince me that God doesn’t have a sassy and spicy side, and right here is Exhibit A. Laughing aside, once you get what just happened there, this story, and that one word, tannin, cannot be ignored.

Satan produced the Hebrew equivalent of a cosmic monster (monsters, actually), and he did it through human hands. Satan’s power and influence are ignored and downplayed way, way too much these days.

People think satan and his horde just knock on walls or give people goosebumps late at night, and yeah, he does because that’s part of the tactic, making people think he’s not the being he is described as. And when people won’t even read their Bible, they won’t be able to recognize an Oth from a Mopheth, and satan is counting on that.

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