Moses

This is the land of Canaan, where the descendants of Abraham’s grandson Israel live - the Israelites. They have a good life here. But now this changes - a famine breaks out. To flee starvation the Israelites move to Egypt. And for several hundred years they do well there.

But Egypt gets a new king - a new Pharaoh - and he is worried about the Israelites becoming to numerous - so he enslaves them. Pharaoh’s plan is that if they live in hardship as slaves they won’t have so many children. He is wrong. In spite of everything the Israelites multiply. Then Pharaoh decides to kill all the newborn Israelite boy children.

Including this one: Moses. But the mother of Moses wants to save her son, so she places him in a basket on the River Nile so that he may float away to safety. Moses doesn’t get very far, because this princess - the daughter of the Pharaoh – finds him and brings him to the Egyptian court. Here he grows up as a prince. But Moses doesn’t really feel like an Egyptian.

He notices how the Israelites suffer and one day when he is watching an Israelite being beaten by his owner Moses is furious. He kills the Egyptian. Oh! Now he must escape. Moses makes it to the Sinai desert and walks up a mountain called Horeb.

What’s that? A burning bush. Moses approaches it. The burning bush is talking. But bushes can’t talk, can they?

No. Look there: an angel. It’s God who is talking to Moses through the bush. God reveals his name - Jahve - to Moses and gives him the mission to return to Egypt, liberate the Israelites, and bring them back to the land of Canaan. Moses tries to convince Pharaoh to release the Israelites.

Pharaoh refuses! Then God helps Moses, by subjecting Egypt to ten plagues, for instance: the Nile’s water turns to blood; swarming grasshoppers eat all the crops; and finally an angel of death kills the firstborn son in every Egyptian home. Now Pharaoh gets scared and sets the slaves free. The Israelites march on. But when they get to The Red Sea, Pharaoh and his soldiers appear.

Pharaoh has changed his mind, now he plans to kill all the Israelites. Moses raises his hands over the sea. It parts, so that the Israelites are able to walk on the sea bed. Pharaoh and his soldiers follow. As soon as the Israelites are across, the water thunders down again, behind them.

The Egyptians drown. Moses brings the Israelites to Sinai and the foot of mount Horeb. Now God appears to Moses again. God wants to make a treaty, a covenant with Moses and the Israelites. If they obey God and follow his laws, they will become his holy people.

Moses recounts this to the Israelites. He asks them to wait while he receives the laws from God on how to behave. The Israelites promise, they will wait. Moses walks up the mountain again and receives ten laws - ten commandments. But this takes quite a while, so the crowd below the mountain becomes impatient.

They gather all their gold, and melt it into a statue of a calf god. Then they say thanks to the calf for bringing them out of Egypt. When Moses sees this, he is furious. Now they have ruined everything, he thinks. They are worshiping another god – Moses is afraid that the one God will punish them, and orders his soldiers to cut down the infidels.

He also makes them stay in the desert for forty years before they are finally able to reach their promised land. Why? Well, they need to be consolidated into one people following the same laws: the ten commandments.