Moses - The Story of Everyone

How is the biography of a 20^th century Anglo-American (I can’t speak to the 21^st century…yet) like the ancient history of the Middle East? 

It recapitulates it! The Old Testament Book of Exodus records the birth of the Hebrew nation in the second millennium BCE. Additional ‘histories’ extend that story through to the onset of ‘senility’ c. 600 BCE.

Our story begins with young Moses tending sheep (a boy’s job) for his future father-in-law, a priest of Midian, Jethro. Not to press the analogy too far (but who can pass this up): puberty dawned for Moses in the form of an inexhaustible, perpetually burning, bush. (There, I’ve got that out of my system, thank you for indulging me.)

The newly adolescent Moses observes an Egyptian mistreating a Hebrew slave and he suddenly becomes aware of the gross injustice baked into the social order, an order he’d previously taken for granted and, as a sometime member of Pharoah’s household, benefited from. Only the poshest private schools for Pharoah’s ward!

Moses resolves, with the help of God, to correct this injustice – preferably before noon so he can get back to tending sheep…and wooing Jethro’s daughter. 

A lifetime later, on his death bed, gazing into the Promised Land, Moses realizes that ‘he’d only just begun’. Still, what he did accomplish in his lifetime was enough to make him one of the best known figures in all of Western history. 

Like adolescents everywhere, Moses rebelled against ‘the rents’ (parents, government, etc.). But unlike most, Moses’ adoptive father was  the government! His version of the stern but well-meaning beat cop was none other than the commander of Pharoah’s charioteers. His ‘parish priests’ were wizards attached to Pharoah’s court. 

This couldn’t be any ordinary adolescent rebellion! Fortunately, Moses had help from his older siblings, Miriam and Aaron, and oh yeah, from God. These were the days when God’s intervention was not confined to a well-placed pep talk, though he certainly gave those when needed; God still got his hands dirty! 

The recently discovered screenplay for an unmade movie, Young Moses,  intended as Part I of the larger project which ultimately became The Ten Commandments (Heston & DeMille), clarifies matters: the most powerful man in the Middle East is challenged by an adopted foundling, his sister (Miriam), his brother (Aaron), and one very big best friend, the kind we all wish we’d had growing up.

Marginal notes indicate that teen Moses was to be played by Mickie Roonie, a wimpy kid with a not so wimpy sidekick (YHWH), to be played by Arnold Schwartzenager. (Pardon the anachronism.)

Today, a temper tantrum might lead to a broken vase or a fist through a wall. Moses expressed his displeasure in a different way: he rained down hordes of pests (frogs, flies, gnats, locusts) on the rents. 

Today, a mischievous tween might put salt in the sugar bowl. Moses turned water into blood. You get the picture!

Finally, Moses and his ‘father’ reach an understanding: they agree to disagree. Moses will leave home with Pharoah’s blessing…or not: even after agreeing to emancipate his wayward son and his entourage, Dad has second thoughts. He sends law enforcement to bring Moses home.  

Happily, this last ditch effort by a helicopter parent who couldn’t let go fails and Moses is finally free to go his own way – but which way is that? (Think Truffaut’s 400 Blows.) Free at last! But free to do what? After all this, is freedom “just another word for nothing left to lose?” (Joplin) Time now for the dreaded “OMG, what have I done?” Who has not been there?

So young Moses sets off to find himself. He needs to discover who he is or,  more accurately (per Sartre), who he wants to become. He needs to survive on his own, support himself and his dependents, and leave footprints in the sand. Compared to this, rebellion was a piece of unleavened bread. 

Moses was an adult now with all the privileges and responsibilities attendant thereto. Metaphorically, we sometimes describe this 40 year period of our lives as ‘wandering in the desert’. In Moses’ case, that was literally true. 

Fortunately for his immediate dependents and for the rest of Western civilization, Moses was successful. He found himself; he reached Cannan, the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Gold watch in his pocket, 401k money in the bank, and travel brochures in his tunic, Moses was ready for blessed retirement. But before he could enjoy it, his body gave out, and he died. Ring any bells?

Truth to tell, Moses on his death bed had much to be proud of; but he also realized that the job was far from complete. Fortunately, Jethro had previously advised Moses to set up a robust ‘judicial system’ to govern in the event of his absence, temporary or permanent. 

His successors, Joshua and the Judges, had a tough road. They faced their own challenges, their own trials. They wandered in deserts of their own but for a time at least, they too succeeded. 

The story of Moses is the story of one man, but it is also the story of everyone! (Think Odysseus, Quixote, Hamlet & Leopold Bloom.) It is the story of the entire Hebrew nation, the Middle East, and by analogy, it is the story of human civilization per se. 

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Bartolomé Esteban Murillo’s Moses at the Rock of Horeb (c. 1669–1670) depicts the moment when Moses strikes a rock to miraculously bring forth water for the parched Israelites in the desert. The painting captures both divine power and human desperation, with light dramatically illuminating Moses and the cascading water while weary families and animals gather to drink. Murillo’s warm color palette, soft brushwork, and emotional realism transform a biblical miracle into a deeply human scene of faith, relief, and compassion.