Moses - The Lawgiver
Moses - The Lawgiver
EGYPT.
The days of the glory of the Pharaohs.
Such majesty and power and corrosive magnifi-
cence as exist only in those periods of history
when one small class lives upon and is heedless of the
blood and tears of tens of thousands of people held in
subjection.
The Children of Israel in bondage. Bereft of hope
they toil in the desert, building walls and temples and
pyramids. Faithful to their God despite the vindictive
oppression of a ruler and a people who worship graven
images, they finally see hope when Moses is raised up
to plead for their liberation from slavery.
An old man in flowing robes gains audience with
Rameses, but his pleas for justice do not avail, and as
a last resort he pronounces, the seventh curse - the curse
of the death of the first-born. The old man is Moses,
but his curse provokes only laughter, and Pharaoh's
young son lashes the prophet from the steps of the
throne.
But in the night the angels of the Most High visit
the tenth plague upon Egypt, and when, the next morn-
ing, Pharaoh holds his first-born dead in his arms, and
hears the wailing of the mothers and fathers of his
land, he orders the liberation of the Jews.
Moses leads the Children of Israel forth from the
gates of the city of their captivity. By the thousands
they stream forth - men and women and children.
Most of them are afoot, but here and there one rides
an ass, or a camel, and some of the aged and infirm are
in litters.
Then Pharaoh suffers a change of heart, and orders
his war chariots to start in pursuit of the Jews. The
Children of Israel are at the Red Sea and those who
are wavering in their faith revile Moses, the leader.
Death or captivity seem inevitable, but Moses prays,
and then the Lord sends a pillar of fire to stop the
charge of the Egyptians and at fhe same time divides
the waiters of the sea so that His Chosen People pass
in safety and dry-shod to the other shore.
The war chariots start in pursuit, but the waters close
over their heads.
The exaltation of the prophet soon passes, for he
finds that during his absence his people have set up a
golden calf and, worshiped it. Even his sister, Miriam,
has been guilty of abominations.
Then Moses, the lawgiver, descends from the mountain and crashes his
tablets of stone into the scene of idolatrous worship
and licentious revelry. The golden calf is destroyed
and turned, to dust.
As the dust settles figures emerge slowly from a misty
background. Departed is the picturesque splendor of
the days when history was written in stone; vanished
the majesty of the background of Sinai and the lightning which
was the sign of the wrath of God...
Is not Pharaoh's son himself of the race of gods?
Are not his golden sandals beaten from the crowns
of conquered kings?
With them they take their goods and chattels,
their cattle and their sheep and their goats. They
are a liberated people on the march - a nation exalted
with hope of the Promised Land and with the knowledge
that the word of their prophets has come true.
