NOTES for Exo 8:1-32
A moment comes when even Pharaoh's closest circle begins to acknowledge the obvious. Even the magicians ("sorcerers") are already telling Pharaoh: this is the finger of God; these are not ordinary events on the natural level. What is this: insight on the part of these people? Perhaps. It happens that a person is completely sincerely sure of being right when in fact he is deeply mistaken.
Another possibility is also clear: the magicians simply understood that denying the obvious any longer was impossible. Every person is attached to his own worldview, his own concepts, his own understanding of life. For Egyptian magicians to acknowledge the power of some prophet from among the barbarians was far from simple. Indeed, it meant that his God was stronger than all the gods of Egypt, stronger than the magicians themselves and all their magic. In principle, the Egyptians did not doubt that God is stronger than any magician. Monotheism was by no means foreign to Egypt in general; among the priests there were quite a few believers in the One.
They considered, however, that monotheism was not for the people, not for the masses. Even those who sincerely believed in the One were sure that their people would not understand them; the people needed traditional gods and traditional cults, and they were seeking nothing more serious or deeper. And in general, as people in the temples and at court thought, the people were mostly uninterested in serious spiritual life; whoever was interested would find the way, since the temples were not closed, and if one wished, one could always try to find there something greater than what the average Egyptian of those days was content with. The court magicians were hardly an exception: they most likely did not doubt that the One stood above all gods.
It was another matter to acknowledge some unknown barbarian as a prophet of this One. For such an acknowledgment, a true upheaval had to take place in the consciousness of an Egyptian priest or magician: neither priests nor magicians had ever taken barbarians seriously. They were even less inclined to believe that barbarians could have any authentic spiritual life than to believe in the authentic spiritual life of the majority of their own people. Now, however, they had to acknowledge the obvious: this strange prophet from among the barbarians really knows the One and hears His voice. That is what they told Pharaoh. The decision was now his.