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| Before, During, and After Prince of Egypt |
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| So what happened after Prince of Egypt, after we see Moses standing on Mt. Sinai with the Ten Commandments in his hand? And what exactly happened during the Exodus? (Movies, as superb as they are, aren't always perfectly accurate.) And how did the Hebrews get into Egypt in the firstplace? The answers are all summarized here, starting from the beginning. |
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In the Beginning...
The whole Exodus event actually dates back to the time of Joseph in the latter part of Genesis, the book before Exodus. |
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| Because Joseph was able to interpret Pharaoh's dreams of famine, he was made governor of Egypt - the second most powerful man in the land after Pharaoh. He prepared the country well, so by the time famine struck, Egypt had nothing to fear. Because Egypt was so bountiful, people from many lands travelled there in order to get food. And that included Joseph's brothers, who had sold him into slavery a long time ago. It was from there that Joseph was reunited with his brothers and forgave them. And since Pharaoh had a good nature and favoured Joseph, he allowed the rest of the Hebrews to come and live in Egypt so that they would not suffer the famine. There, they were warmly welcomed and settled in a place specially reserved for them, which was known as Goshen. |
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| So for a long time, the Hebrews lived a happy life in the land of the Nile. They dwelt side by side with the Egyptians, working together and bonding with each other. |
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| But soon, Joseph and the kind-hearted Pharaoh passed away and a new Pharaoh took over the throne. He was the exact opposite of the former Pharaoh and had noticed that the Hebrews had multiplied abundantly. He then feared that they might turn against his own Egyptian people and overthrow them. So he put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labour, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for the Pharaoh. |
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For four-hundred and thirty years, the Hebrews suffered in bondage as slaves of the Egyptians until many years later, Moses was born and chosen by God to lead the Hebrew people out of slavery. Thus, the Exodus happened. |
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The Birth and Early Life of Moses
Even as the Hebrews lived in misery and oppression, they still continued to multiply as rapidly as before. Pharaoh still feared that they were overwhelming the Egyptians and take over the land. So, he ordered the Hebrew midwives to get rid of the baby boys, but to spare the girls. Yet the midwives refused to do so because they knew it was wrong. So then, Pharaoh ordered a cruel decree: every first-born Hebrew male must be culled and thrown to the crocodiles of the Nile. |
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| Now at this time, a young woman named Yocheved, whose husband Amram was from the tribe of Levi, had just given birth to a beautiful baby boy. As she was a woman of love, courage, and conviction, she refused to resign herself to the death of her newborn. For three months, she kept him safely hidden inside their humble abode. When he reached three months of age - when his crying and crawling would soon lead to his discovery - she conceived and carried out a daring and risky plan to save his life. She made a little basket out of bulrushes, carefully fastening it together with tar and pitch and testing its buoyancy many time before she could put the actual cargo in it. When the time came, she placed the baby in the basket and watched tearfully as it slowly moved away from her, floating adrift on the Nile. While she and her other son, Aaron, returned to their house, Miriam, the eldest child, kept a close eye on the little ark to see what would happen to it. She observed as it floated past several hazards and finally came to a resting stop near the Pharaoh's palace. |
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| Now it just so happened that Pharaoh's daughter (unlike in Prince, where his wife plays this role) was coming to bathe at the river's edge when she caught sight of the basket and sent one of her maids to get it. When she opened the basket and noticed the tiny baby resting inside it, her heart filled with compassion for the little one and wondered how she could take care of him. Upon seeing this stroke of luck, Miriam immediately rushed to the princess and offered her mom as a wet nurse for the baby. |
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The princess gladly agreed, and this brought a brief reunion for the baby and his biological mother. She took care of him and when he was old enough, she brought him to the Palace to live with the princess, his adoptive mother. It is not certain if the princess had an idea that the baby's wet nurse was really his real mother. But when she adopted him as her son, she named him Moses, meaning, ' I drew him out of the water.' From that day on, Moses was raised as a prince of Egypt. |
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His Escape to Midian
It is not certain how Moses came to know of his true origins, nor is it certain if he ever came to know who his real mother was, unlike in the movie where it is revealed to him in a hieroglyphic nightmare. But apparently, he eventually did. Because one day, he went out and noticed an Egyptian overseer beating up one of the Hebrew slaves. He looked to see if there was no one looking and when he was sure of that, he came to the slaves defence and killed the Egyptian. Some time after, Moses saw two Hebrew slaves fighting and asked why they were doing such. And then they confronted him with their knowing that he had killed an Egyptian. This really scared Moses, because then he knew it was obvious that everyone knew of his crime. When Pharaoh heard about it, he ordered that Moses should be executed as a penalty. So Moses fled from Egypt and into the barren deserts of Midian. There, he saw a well and stopped by it to rest. |
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| At that moment, seven Midianite shepherdesses approached the well and started drawing water for their sheep. Just then, some men approached the girls and gave the water, which the girls had so painfully drawn, to their flock. |
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Upon seeing this, Moses came to the rescue once more. He drove the mens flocks away and let the girls' sheep drink. Afterwards, they went back to their nomadic tent but left him at the well. When they told their father Jethro, the high priest of Midian, about what Moses had done, he ordered them to bring Moses back to the tent so that they could hold a celebration in honour of him. That they did, and Moses was thankful for it. Jethro was grateful to him as well and as a token of his gratitude, he gave his eldest daughter, Zipporah (no, this is not a typo, that was the original spelling of her name), to Moses for his wife. Not like in the film where it is their personal decision to marry. Thus for many years, Moses lived in peace and contentment with the Midianites. |
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The Burning Bush
One day, Moses was out tending to his flock near Mt. Horeb when one of the sheep went astray. While going after it, Moses suddenly noticed a strange and awesome sight: a burning bush whose flames did not consume the branches. Moses then heard God's voice, ordering him to remove his sandals because he was standing on holy ground. Here, God spoke to Moses and commanded him to deliver the Hebrews from Egypt. When Moses asked God who He was, God said to Moses: |
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" I am Who I am. " |
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He told Moses to bring them to the Promised Land, which He described as a ' land flowing with milk and honey.' When Moses hesitated, God demonstrated his power. For instance, when he told Moses to throw his staff on the ground, the staff turned into a snake. And when Moses picked it up,it became a staff again. Then he covered Moses' hand with leprosy, and then made it clean again.
Then he promised Moses that He would be with him and informed him that he would meet Aaron on his way back. Aaron was to be Moses' mouthpiece to Pharaoh, for Moses had a speech impediment: stammering. (Though in the movie, his voice is as clear as a church bell.) Thus, Moses was filled with a new sense of inspiration and prepared for his journey to Egypt. |
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The Return to Egypt
After he returned from his uplifting encounter with God, he informed his in-laws that he would be returning to Egypt, and Jethro wished him well. So he left, taking Zipporah and his two sons, Gershom and Eliezer, with him. In the middle of the night, Zipporah tried to kill him for some strange reason but God had sent an angel to protect him. So Zipporah and the kids returned to Midian, while Moses continued to Egypt and indeed, met Aaron along the way. Now they were ready to face Pharaoh.
So as you can see, there was a brother team in the actual event instead of a husband-and;-wife team. Still, the story lies very similarly with the film. |
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Pharaoh's First Refusal
Moses and Aaron then approached Pharaoh and pardoned with him to free the Hebrew slaves because it was the will of God. Because Pharaoh was the most powerful man in the land and did not even know the Hebrew God, he refused and even doubled the workload of the slaves. When the Israelite foremen saw Moses and Aaron, they cried out to them in righteous anger. Moses, in turn, cried out to God, and God said in effect, ' Now you stand back and watch!' |
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The Staff Becomes a Snake
God's first sign to Pharaoh was the 'morphing' of Moses' staff into a snake. But Pharaoh refused to see the power of God and thus ordered his own magicians to do the same. They succeeded in doing so, but in the end Moses' own snake ate the magicians' snakes. Though Pharaoh regarded Moses' mission as futile, he was far from correct, as this was only the beginning. |
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The Plagues
After the staff-snake incident, God brought down a series of plagues onto Egypt, so that Pharaoh would be compelled to let the Hebrews go. The plagues greatly affected the Egyptians and brought misery throughout the land, but the Hebrews did not even feel the plagues. In the middle of the plagues, Pharaoh devised a cunning pattern in his dealing. Whenever Moses released another disaster upon Egypt, Pharaoh promised to let the Jews go. When the disaster stopped, Pharaoh went back on his promise. Yet, he did not know the sorrow that would soon befall him.
The plagues came as follows:
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Blood Frogs Gnats Flies Death of Livestock Boils Hail Locusts Darkness |
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| These plagues proved a point for both the Jews and the Egyptians... |
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The Passover
The tenth and final plague was the most terrible and devastating of all. Before it struck at night, Moses told the Hebrews that the Angel of Death would come and strike down every first-born Egyptian. In order to keep the Hebrews safe, they were instructed to take blood from fresh, slaughtered lambs and put it on the lintels and posts of their door as a sign for the Angel of Death to pass over them. That was why this was called the ' Passover.' Before that, they ate unleavened bread mixed with spices to commemorate the bitterness of their slavery, which became known as the Passover Meal. Even today, the Jews still celebrate this. |
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| Before the Angel of Death came, Moses went to Pharaoh to pardon with him for one last time, but Pharaoh still refused. Thus, he had blown his last chance. So that night, all of Egypt's firstborn died, from Pharaoh's own son to the son of the Egyptian servants. After seeing all the grief and sadness that spread throughout the land, Pharaoh finally granted the Hebrews their freedom. |
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The Israelites' Exodus from Egypt
A great cry of joy sounded through the Jews as Moses told them that they were finally free. With no more fear of Pharaoh, the former slaves marched triumphantly through the gates of Egypt and out into freedom while singing songs of joy. There were about six-hundred thousand of them leaving Egypt, in addition to their families and livestock. |
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As the days passed, the Jews grew weary and sombre. Finally they arrived at the shore of the Red Sea. As they were settling down to rest, they heard a rumbling sound in the distance and saw Egyptian chariots, headed by Pharaoh himself, charging towards them. The Hebrews then complained to Moses, ' It would have been better for us to serve Pharaoh than to die in the wilderness!' |
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| Moses then turned up to God and was instructed by Him to place his staff on the waters. No sooner had he done that, the mighty Red Sea split into two towering walls of water, defying all the laws of gravity. It was truly a miracle! No one had ever seen anything like it. |
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| The grateful Hebrews crossed the sea, which was no longer a sea, and were relaxed for a while until they saw Pharaoh's soldiers chasing after them. They took up speed and just as the last of them had crossed the opposite shore, the water returned to its natural state and thus, the entire Egyptian army was drowned. When the Hebrews realized that they were truly free, their joy was indescribable, and Miriam led the people in a song of praise, which had been uplifted to God in the Heavens. If I recall correctly, this was also known as the Song of the Sea. |
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' Sing to the Lord for He is triumphant the horse and his rider are thrown into the sea. Sing to the Lord for He is my refuge; My God and my strength He shall always be.' |
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The Israelites' Early Days in the Desert
So what happened in between the huge Red Sea event and the giving of the Ten Commandments? Well, the Israelites went through a lot, and it wasn't easy for them at all. For three months before the Ten Commandments, the Israelites wandered in the desert with Moses as their guide. After some time, they grew hungry and complained like anything. They even began to compare their present life with their life back in Egypt. Finally, God fed them with manna, a frosty white bread-like kind of food (I guess it would have been similar to Frosted Flakes, only softer.) Aside from that, He sent flocks of quail as well. Moses also threw a log into some pools of water, and the water turned from bitter to fresh. To show the Jews that He was with them, God travelled with them in the form of a great cloud of fire. As they went deeper into the wilderness, they began to complain again of thirst. So God told Moses to strike a rock by Mount Horeb, and doing so the water gushed out of it. |
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| The Israelites also had to face the Amalekites, a bloodthirsty, uncivilized tribe which attacked and killed many of their people. Moses then prayed to God for help and lifted his arms towards Heaven. This was necessary, because he noticed that whenever he would lower his arms and staff, the Amalekites would win against the Israelites. He had been raising his arms for such a long time that two men even had to support him already. Finally, God helped them win victoriously over the desert tribe. |
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| After sometime, Moses was reunited with Jethro, Zipporah, and his children again. Jethro advised him to get some men to help him with his job of leading the Israelites through the desert, as it was a job laden with responsibilities. Moses took Jethro's advice and it worked well. |
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The Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai
It had been three months since they had left Egypt. From there, Moses led them to the foot of Mt. Sinai at last. The people prepared themselves to receive it and at the Lord's bidding, Moses climbed up the mountain to receive two tablets of stone on which the Ten Commandments - the laws for living a moral life - were carved. More laws were given by God as well, but the Ten Commandments were the principle ones. |
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1. You shall have no other gods before me. 2. You shall not make yourself an idol... 3. You shall not take the Lord's name in vain. 4. Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy. 5. Honour your father and mother so that you may live long in the land God is giving you. 6. You shall not murder. 7. You shall not commit adultery. 8. You shall not steal. 9. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour. 10. You shall not covet. |
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| Aside from the Ten Commandments, God commanded him to make the Art of the Covenant, as well as a tabernacle where the Ark would be placed. The Ark was a chest made out of wood, coated with gold and with poles at the side for carrying, and the opening was to be covered with a lid that had two winged creatures standing on top. Inside this chest, the two stone tablets would be placed. The tabernacle was to be as splendid as well. God gave Moses precise instructions on how to design them. During this time, after receiving the tablets of stone, Moses stayed on Mt. Sinai and talked with God for forty days. |
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The Golden Calf
Meanwhile, at the foot of the mountain, the people grew impatient and arrived to a conclusion that Moses had abandoned them - and therefore, God had abandoned them as well. So they pleaded to Aaron to make them a new god. Aaron couldn't really control the angry mob, so he ordered all the women to donate their jewellery. These were melted and moulded into the shape of a golden calf. For many days and nights, the Hebrews danced around it, making sacrifices to it and worshipping it as if it were some god. They also started to live very immoral lives: perverse, dishonest, and cruel. |
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| When Moses finally came down from the mountain and saw the people worshipping an idol, he grew furious and threw the tablets bearing the commandments, and they crashed to the ground. And he condemned all of them. He reprimanded Aaron too, for allowing the people to make themselves a worthless idol when they already have a true God. |
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The New Tablets
Moses then went back up to Mt. Sinai and stayed there for forty more days. He then asked God if he could see Him in all His glory. God told him that if one were to see Him, he would die, so Moses was only able to see his back instead. Then, he carved two new tablets of stone and went back down to his people. There, he stood tall, with his face shining brightly, as he had literally seen the glory of God. And the people took him with honour and respect. |
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| Moses had also pleaded with God not to punish the Israelites, and God, being a merciful God, said that He would forgive them but he would not be with them throughout their journey anymore, because �He was still really angry about the golden calf. |
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The Journey Continues
After their departure from Sinai, the people built the Ark of the Covenant following Moses' instructions from God, and when it was finished, God covered it with a cloud. During the journey, the people grumbled (as the Bible puts it) and complained for the nth time on how tiring and tumultuous the journey was. They also complained about the food, saying that they had nothing but ' boring manna ' here while in Egypt, they had a variety: fish, cucumbers, watermelons, leeks, onions, and garlic. God grew so angry that he gave them contaminated quail meat, and many of them died from it. |
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| Aaron and Miriam also got jealous of Moses since God spoke to him but never to the two of them. Of course, this also made God very angry on why they would question Him, and made them ill with a skin disease. And for the umpteenth time, Moses begged God to forgive them, and thus He made them well again. |
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Then God told Moses to send twelve spies to check out Canaan, the Promised Land, and to see if the land was rich and the people living in it were prosperous. The spies were gone for forty days (forty, again) and when they returned, they brought with them a whole vine branch rich with figs and pomegranates. And they said that while the land was indeed rich, the cities had many strong warriors the size of giants protecting them, which made it useless for the Israelites to fight against.
From here, a debate arose: whether to go into Canaan and fight them anyway, in the knowledge that God would be present; or whether not to go, since the men in Canaan were invincible. The Israelites were so furious about the whole thing that they even talked about having someone that would lead them back to Egypt again!! |
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Because of their endless complaining, God made them turn back and wander for forty years - and as a result, only the generation after them would be able to see the Promised Land.
Moses was also in the same boat as them. You see, even though was the chosen leader by God, he was no better than the people he led. At one point, he disobeyed God as well. When the Hebrews complained of short water supply, God told him to speak to a rock. But instead of speaking to it,
Moses struck it with his staff. Though water came out, God was displeased that Moses did not do as He commanded, and told Moses that he, too, would never be able to see the Promised Land. |
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During this time, they encountered many more hardships and enemies as well. The King of Edom refused to let them pass through his country, so they had to go all the way around it. And of course, their grumbling never ceased until God had it with them and sent poisonous snakes to bite them.
After realizing their sins, Moses again pleaded with God and God told him to make a serpent out of bronze so that anyone who touched it would be healed.
Next, they encountered the kingdom of the Amorites. These people sought to destroy the Hebrews, but the Hebrews won the battle and actually settled in their kingdom for a while. Then there was King Balek, the king of Moab. When he heard that the Hebrews were coming, he asked Balaam, a holy man from Midian (I'm not sure if he could have known Jethro), to put a curse on the Hebrews. But God made Balaam do otherwise, so no harm fell upon them. He filled Balaam with these words: |
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' How splendid are your tents, O Israel; how good is the place where you lie-- Like long rows of palms Like gardens by a river Like fruit trees that God has planted Like cedars beside the water! What its curved horns are to a wild bull God is to you, the nation he has brought out of Egypt You shall eat up all your enemies crunch their bones And no one will dare interfere with you A star shall come out of your nation A comet shall arise from Israel And do great deeds. ' |
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The Death of Moses
And soon, Moses' time came. God called him and another man named Joshua to the tabernacle, so that he could give Moses his last instructions and appoint Joshua as Moses' successor. There, he appeared to him in a pillar of cloud and told Moses to write down His words in a book that was to be placed beside the Ark. Then, He told Joshua what his job was to be, as well as promising him that He would be there with him.
So then, Moses did exactly what God said, and placed the book in which he had written God's words beside the Ark. Then, he told the people to continue obeying God. He also blessed each of the twelve tribes and gave praise to God. |
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' Praise the Lord you heavens, Bow down all you gods, before Him, For the Lord will give His people justice And have mercy on His chosen servants He will say There is no god but Me.' |
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| Then, after blessing Joshua, he went up Mount Nebo in Moab under God's final instructions and there, he saw the Promised Land from a distance. And there, he passed away. Though he was already an old man, approximately one-hundred and twenty years old, his eyesight was still sharp and his strength was like that of a young man's. His body was buried in a valley in Moab, no one knows where. And all the people mourned for him bitterly. |
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| So then, following Moses was the young man named Joshua, who led the Hebrews into the great adventure involving the collapsing of the wall of Jericho. But the Hebrews' search for the Promised Land doesn't end here. It continues on and on and on and on. |
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