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Sometimes being useful is more important than being brilliant, writes Paul Catmur.

As a young man, to say, here i am, i'm not the egyptian you thought i am, i too am an israelite, and i'm asking for my people to be released. >> to convince the pharaoh god gave moses the power to perform what the bible refers to as signs and wonder. >> he goes to pharaoh and says let my people go and pharaoh says -- >> okay. >> okay. >> reporter: the most famous of these powers was the ability to turn his staff into a snake. in the ancient world stories of snakes and magic were common. >> a magician takes a little image of wax which can be held in the hand of a crocodile and as soon as he thr...

Israelite, and i'm asking for my people to be released. >> to convince the pharaoh god gave moses the power to perform what the bible refers to as signs and wonder. >> he goes to pharaoh and says let my people go and pharaoh says -- >> okay. >> okay. >> reporter: the most famous of these powers was the ability to turn his staff into a snake. in the ancient world stories of snakes and magic were common. >> a magician takes a little image of wax which can be held in the hand of a crocodile and as soon as he throws it on the ground it becomes a real crocodile until the magician grabs the crocodil...

>> a magician takes a little image of wax which can be held in the hand of a crocodile and as soon as he throws it on the ground it becomes a real crocodile until the magician grabs the crocodile by the tail and once again it reverts to its small size in his palm. >> reporter: these magicians were men of high status back in ancient egypt. it's a tradition that continues to this day. >> yikes! ah! >> reporter: back in luxor we met mohammed. he comes from a long line of snake charmers. his snakes, on the other hand, not so charming. >> oh, my goodness, there's something -- oh, it's pooped. gross...

Surely someone he knew as a young man. to say here i am, i'm not the egyptian you thought i am. i too am an israelite and i'm asking for my people to be released. >> to convince the pharaoh, god gave moses the power to perform what the bible refers to as signs and wonder. >> it's not the case that he goes to pharaoh and says let my people go and pharaoh says -- >> okay. >> okay. >> the most famous of these powers was the ability to turn his staff into a snake. in the ancient world, stories of snakes and magic were common. >> a magician takes a little image of wax, which can be held in the hand...