7295. 'And Aaron threw down his rod in front of Pharaoh and his servants, and it was made into a water-serpent' means that sheer illusions and resulting falsities reigned among them. This is clear from the meaning of 'throwing down the rod' as demonstrating power, dealt with just above in 7292; from the representation of 'Pharaoh and his servants' as those who molest by means of falsities; and from the meaning of 'a water-serpent' as illusions and resulting falsities, dealt with just above in 7293.

[2] This wonder means the first warning given to those who molest to leave off. The situation with the evil who molest the upright in the next life is this: When they first enter that life from the world they have good spirits and angels attached to them, as they did when they were people living in the body; for even wicked people also have angels present with them, the reason being that they are then able to turn, if they will, towards heaven, receive what flows in from there, and be reformed. Consequently, since their life in its entirety follows them into the next life, they live initially in association with angels. But as they are by nature such, because of the life they led in the world, that they cannot receive the inflow of truth and goodness from heaven, the angels and good spirits then gradually depart from them. And as these depart, those people become less and less rational. For the ability to be rational comes from the Lord by way of heaven.

[3] The first stage in the removal and deprivation of the inflow of truth and goodness is what is described here by Aaron's rod being turned into a serpent, meaning that sheer illusions would reign, and falsities resulting from them. The second stage is described by the waters of Egypt being turned into blood, meaning that actual truths were falsified. The third stage is that of the frogs which crawled out of the waters, meaning reasonings based on utter falsities, and so on. By such stages too the evil in the next life are deprived of their understanding of what is true and good.