Mensa Otabil - The Magicians Fail (10/18/2025)
Exodus chapter 8, verse 18: Now the magicians so wept with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not. So there were lice on man and beast; no spot was spared in the third plague, unlike the earlier plagues where there were some spots unaffected. Neither could the magicians get water turned into blood, nor could they get some water to bring frogs out. This one filled the whole place; they had nowhere to stand and nothing to do about this lice. The stinging insects affected the people, completely covering the land. Pharaoh’s magicians, I’m sure probably in the palace, sought to mimic what God had done, and this time they used their secret arts. Probably they chanted whatever they did, but to no avail; they failed.
The passage says that after that, the lice were on both man and beast, so they couldn’t avert it. The plague became more severe and more intense. There is a point to learn that there are times in this world when all powers concede to the power of God. Sometimes the enemy may be active and mimic the work of God, but there comes a point where they cannot mimic what God is doing. Remember that at the beginning of the conflict, the Lord had warned Moses it was not going to be a short conflict. You’re not going to go into battle and have Pharaoh concede instantly; he said he would harden his heart. The Lord says, «I will escalate my work; I will escalate the plagues. They will become more and more severe.»
As it grows in severity, he would have to decide whether to continue or to stop. Here we see that God’s works are persistent. When God starts doing something, He doesn’t back down. If you think you’re stubborn, you’ve met a God who never backs down, and He will escalate His work until every knee bows to Him. The first breaking point is that Pharaoh’s magicians cannot go any further; they have reached the extent of their power. Listen to me: There’s no demonic power, no occult power, no evil power that can persist in the presence of God. For a moment, they may seem to be working, but there will come a point where they cannot go any further. May God bring you to that point where evil cannot go any further; they cannot continue deceiving, they cannot continue enchantments, they cannot continue manifesting, because God’s power persistently has brought them to their knees.
If you’re a child of God, you have to trust the Lord through your struggles. You have to trust the Lord when things don’t seem to be going well, when it seems like the enemy is fighting back, and you’re experiencing all kinds of setbacks. You have to trust God and stay with Him; He is a faithful God, and He will bring you to a point where the enemy can pursue no further. This is the first breaking point. As we read more about what happened in Exodus, there are several breaking points, but this is the first: the first victory is when the magicians cannot persist in their deception any longer. May God do the same for you, in the name of Jesus.
Let us pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, confound every worker of wickedness and bring the works of darkness to a halt in our land, in Jesus' name, Amen.»