Archibald G. Brown, East London Tabernacle
"Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth — men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected!" 2 Timothy 3:8
"Jannes and Jambres — whoever are they?" This is a question I can imagine being asked by many, if not most present. Their names only occur in this verse, and nothing is made known about them here except the fact that they were a trouble and obstacle to Moses. All the incidents usually dwelt upon by the biographer are lacking. Nothing is recorded of their birth, appearance, manner of life or time of death. From the fact that they resisted Moses, we know fifteen hundred years must have rolled over their unknown graves. During all this time their names never once appear in inspired history, until they are used in our text as solemn warnings to the professors of Paul's time.
But who were they? Jewish records, and all commentators agree in saying, they were the chief of the sorcerers employed by Pharaoh. They were the men who sought to counteract the influence of the miracles of Moses by apparently doing the same things.
Kindly turn with me to the seventh chapter of Exodus and the eleventh verse, and you will read the history of that opposition, which centuries after illustrated an apostle's appeal. Moses had just commanded Aaron to cast his rod upon the ground, and that rod has just been changed into a serpent, when "Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers; now the magicians of Egypt also did in like manner with their enchantments, for every man cast down his rod, and they became serpents."
Here now was a difficulty, and for a moment Moses must have felt baffled. In the estimation of the beholders, he was nothing more than the magician. The miracle on which perhaps he had greatly depended to give weight to his words had lost all its power. True, he might know that there was reality on his side, and only trickery on theirs — but then how about Pharaoh and his court? What effect would the seeming miracle of Jannes and Jambres have on their mind? It could have but one. It would harden them in their sin and take all point and power from the words of Moses.
They doubtless argued "What is Moses more than our own wise men, if he can perform a miracle to get Israel out of Egypt — they can perform a similar one to keep them in the land; so what is there to choose between them?" Thus God's handiwork was brought into discredit by man's imitation. The real suffered through the sham. The truth lost its power by the lie. The appearance neutralized the influence of the reality.
Now perhaps some of you are already saying, "But what has this to do with Paul's argument? Jannes and Jambres had rotted in their graves ages before he mentioned their names." True — but a new race of them was to rise. Paul, looking into the future, saw the church meeting the same form of opposition as Moses. History was to repeat itself; so he warns of the coming danger.
You and I, dear friends, are living "in the last days" that he speaks about in the first verse of this chapter. The days of Jannes and Jambres — so the subject should have special interest to us. Certainly if the Holy Spirit thought it worthwhile to hold up the opposition of these men as typical of the opposition the truth is to meet in our times, the study of their character is worthy our most careful thought.
I will ask you to notice —
First, the nature of the opposition offered by Jannes and Jambres.
Secondly, its influence.
Thirdly, its end.
May the Lord help us in preaching on a subject which has long weighed upon my mind. It is a subject more important than pleasant, and one which we believe to be specially adapted to the present state of our churches. Many Jannes and Jambres abound just now.I. First then, Let us notice the nature of the opposition offered by these men to Moses. It was exceedingly subtle, and had so little show of opposition about it, that onlookers might have been slow to believe they had anything but feelings of respect towards Moses. To them it would seem little more than a trial of skill between Jewish and Egyptian magicians. Here was the power and the danger of the resistance. You do not find that they tried to make light of the miracles of Moses, or call into question their genuineness, or anything of the sort. No, they simply copied him as far as possible, and tried by imitations to depreciate the value of the real. They so surrounded the true diamond with cut glass copies that in the eye of an undiscerning public, it was difficult to tell the difference.
This is the kind of resistance the church has to struggle against in the present day. The old, rough, brutal, physical opposition has passed away.
The Inquisition with its horrid tortures, and Smithfield with its blazing victims — are things of the past. It would be folly on the part of Satan to try and use such weapons now. Their date is over and he knows it. With changing times, he always changes his tactics. Like a skillful angler, he suits the fly on his hook to the season of the year. Variety, if not pleasing, is profitable to him in this respect.
His first effort against Christianity was to stamp it out, just as his first effort was to slay Moses. All kinds of means were employed. Edicts, prohibitions, fines, imprisonments, individual torturings, and general massacres. These things suited a certain age. We are now — or at least are supposed to be — more refined, polite and tolerant. The idea of hanging or burning a man for his views, whatever they might be, would be universally discounted, except perhaps by some of the followers of Rome, the members of which church have always shown a great partiality for the burning faggot as an argument for their faith. The times having thus changed, Satan has accommodated himself to them, and instead of seeking to stamp Christians out, he now goes on an entirely different tack. Having failed to do away with Christians, he now seeks to make the whole world Christian after his sort. Stamping out the genuine having proved another failure — he now seeks to swamp them with imitations of his own manufacture.
The church in the world — but not of the world, having outlived all and every attack — is now threatened with a new danger. Satan means to have a Christian world — one at least in name and profession. As he cannot altogether do away with the testimony of a Moses, he will antidote it by raising up a number like Jannes and Jambres, who will so closely imitate him that the world will cry "they are alike, their pretensions are equally good, it is six of one and half a dozen of the other."
Satan's last and greatest plan of resistance has been to throw over the world the cloak of a hollow profession, and as far as possible — to fill the pulpit with a Jannes, and the pew with a Jambres. In the place of living, breathing Christians, he is giving us Christians on canvas, and the church is half-smothered with the shams crowded into her.
That this is the true teaching of the text I have no doubt, and I am convinced that this is the kind of resistance Paul meant Jannes and Jambres to illustrate, for if you turn to the fifth verse of this chapter, you will find their characters sketched in very few words: "having a form of godliness — but denying the power." Yes, that is it — formal and powerless. Like Moses in his actions — but devoid of the God-given might by which he performed them.
Let us now enter more into detail. We have seen that the resistance was one of imitation rather than obstruction — and that this is the kind of resistance we may expect to meet. Let us now notice in what particulars the imitation may resemble the real — the empty form appear to be the genuine power.
Observe first that a Jannes or Jambres can do many of the same things as a true Moses; and in the judgment of worldly onlookers, they can do them just as well. Aaron's rod is turned into a serpent! Amazement takes hold of the spectators, until one of the sorcerers with a look of perfect self-assurance casts his rod down, and lo, it becomes a serpent. Others follow his example, until coiling and twisting at Pharaoh's feet, are plenty of proofs that, at least in this respect, the magicians can do the same as Moses.
There need be no great wonderment on our part as to how they accomplished their feat. The Egyptians were masters in the are of conjuring — and as great marvels are done by sleight of hand in our own day. The thing was this, they did it — or what is the same as far as their resistance to Moses was concerned — they appeared to do it. Granting that Pharaoh and his court knew it to be but a clever trick on their part, the opposition was the same, for how was Moses to prove that his was anything better? His rod, or more strictly speaking, Aaron's rod, became, as far as sight could guarantee anything, a serpent. So did the rods of Jannes and Jambres. That was enough for Pharaoh.
Another wonder is done by the rod of Moses and Aaron. It strikes the river and lo, the channel is filled with blood instead of water. Blood — blood — nothing but blood — the whole river stank with blood. Surely now the Egyptians will believe there is power in Jehovah's messengers. They might have, if it had not been for Jannes and Jambres. They turn, or at least they seem to turn, some water into blood, perhaps a small vessel full. Never mind the quantity. "Water into blood is the same thing whether in a large or small measure," say the Egyptians, "so our magicians are a match for God's Moses."
But again Aaron's rod works a miracle. From rivers, streams, pools, swamps, ponds, there comes an army of frogs. The land is full of them. Indoors as well as outdoors, there they are. They leap into the beds, they croak in the ovens, they defile the kneading troughs. Horrible! But Jannes and Jambres are equal to the occasion. They seem to manufacture frogs with perfect ease, although they have no power to remove them. Thus three times the testimony of Moses was lessened, if not neutralized, by men without God doing apparently just what he did with his God. He had to contend with "the form without the power."
So it is now. It is difficult to say what a Jannes or a Jambres cannot do. Can a true child of God, one who has "the power" within him, preach? So can the man who only has the form. O sirs, it is a sad truth to tell — but if every Jannes and Jambres were turned out of the pulpit this morning, there would be many congregations without any preacher — and a good thing for them too.
Preach! Yes, that they can; sentences as smooth and rounded as beach pebbles, and with as much life, roll over their lips. Preach! Yes, in studied language with flowing measure that makes many a poor stammering Moses envy their ability. Preach, yes, with plenty of "form" and almost perfect delivery, while a congregation that knows and cares nothing about the "power" applauds the eloquence.
Being a preacher is not an infallible proof of being a saved man. He may simply be a conjurer in the pulpit, resisting the truth he professes to love.
Can a true child of God teach in the Sunday school? Yes, and so can Jannes and Jambres. It is a shame to our schools that so little care is taken to keep them out of the classes. One is almost tempted to think that children's souls are of so little value that they may be experimented on. But the worst of it is that Jannes can look so much like Moses, and "the form" can so well imitate "the power" that it is difficult not to be deceived sometimes. If children had no souls, and if the work of Sunday School teaching was not conversion, then the Jannes would often make the best teacher.
These magicians are always clever, their profession requires them to be so.
Can a true child of God take a tract-district and visit the sick? So can either Jannes or Jambres. They can visit as punctually, arrange their districts as methodically, and perhaps draw up a far better report of their work. They can pour into the ear of the sick man all the well-worn bedside platitudes, and to the eye of the public, if not to the eye of God, they do as much good as the Moses who is slow of speech, and only has "the power," and do it in a neater style and in better "form."
Time would fail to tell of all the different things they can do and are doing. They can take the chair at public meetings, and express their unbounded interest in the object that has convened the gathering, with a quiet self-delight that makes the meek Moses in the body of the hall, who is really devoted to the work, feel humbled to think how far he falls below their standard.
