Exodus!

I will readily admit that, when I first started reading Exodus, I was not especially enamored with Moses. The tale of his early childhood certainly was dramatic. His mother hid him so that he wouldn't get killed by the Pharaoh's minions. After Joseph and his brothers passed away, a new pharaoh came along. Well, the new Pharaoh discovered that the Israelites were mating and were reproducing like rabbits, and he got a little panicky that his people would soon be outnumbered. He told the midwives to kill the Israelite babies shortly after they were born. So the Israelite ladies gave birth to their babies without the assistance of midwives. At this point, the minions were called in to do in the baby boys.

Well, Moses' mother didn't want her son to be a statistic so she hid her son and then put him into a basket and sent him down the river, where he was rescued by the Pharaoh's sister, who saw him as a cute little thing. So she adopted him and, oddly enough, got his mother to be his wet nurse.

Moses' upbringing wasn't really described but, at some point, Moses' temper got him into trouble because he killed an Egyptian who was tormenting an Israelite. The Israelites weren't especially pleased with Moses' actions, either. Needless to say, Moses had to leave Egypt rather abruptly. He went to the desert and started a new life. He married and became a father. He spent many years away from Egypt. He grew up but not completely. When God called on him to go back to Egypt and free his people from the Pharaoh's oppression, Moses tried to get out of the task. He claimed that he was slow of speech and unable to do what was requested of him. His brother Aaron was better at that sort of stuff. Pick Aaron! Not me!

So Moses and Aaron went to Egypt... and, at this point, the story got exciting. Moses and Aaron let the Pharaoh know that bad plagues awaited him if he did not let the Israelites go. Unfortunately, God caused the Pharaoh's heart to harden, despite infestations of flies and frogs and locusts, attacks of boils, rivers of polluting blood, and other unpleasantness.

The story has become a battle of wills... Moses and Aaron vs. the Pharaoh of Egypt. It's got heroes and villains and action and adventure. As in most stories and strife and conflict, it seems that the ordinary people get the worst of the situation. In this case, it's the Egyptians. They struggle and suffer, mainly because of the poor decisions made by the Pharaoh, who comes across as more in love with power than with his own people.

Anyway... more later...

The Exodus of the 19th century... slaves running from bondage in the American south to freedom in Canada. This monument, called Freedom Crossing, is in Lewiston, New York. The slaves crossed the river at night to avoid being grabbed by slave catchers. The other side of the Niagara River is Canada.