Chapter 2 thoughts
For some reason - and I’m hoping it’s more than just the animated film’s influence - I thought Moses accidentally killed the Egyptian, then immediately fled out of guilt and fear. Writing the real story, of Moses’ cold-blooded and calculated murder, then his flight after Pharaoh’s attempted hit, gives me a slightly different context for our story’s upcoming hero.
I think this just continues to illustrate how so often I’ve misconstrued so many of the Bible’s major figures in overly positive lights. I think I do this in everyday life too, exaggerating some people’s positive traits and even rewriting what happen to flatter them. I don’t think it’s just me, either. I think we all do this - I’ve certainly seen it during this election cycle in political coverage. Favored candidates have their lies treated as misstatements, or terrible policy positions considered only for their few strong points. Prior to this writing, I thought Moses fled chiefly out of guilt after accidentally killing a bad person. But the truth is that our exalted politicians are prone to the same moral failures as the rest of us, and Moses was every bit as evil as the violent Egyptian.
But the real truth - the enduring reality of Scripture - is that God sees. He understands. He listens. He remembers.
And most importantly for us, He redeems those which are otherwise worthless.
May 28th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Yeah, it’s pretty wild how we can remember the story wrong like that. I read through the Pentateuch in the Fall and was surprised at how much I didn’t have right.
I probably need to do it again.
I took your lead and wrote out Psalm 24 today in my prayer time. It’s good to do. Thanks for the, uh, motivation?