The great story of the exodus of the Israelites, their exit from slavery in Egypt, captivates every generation of Christians. Children love it. It makes for a wonderful film. For Christians, this is not the story of another people. Because of our membership of the Church, we have inherited this family narrative of the Hebrew people, whom we joined at Baptism. The story begins with the Israelites having grown prosperous and numerous during their stay to the east of the Nile delta, after the ascendancy of the Hebrew patriarch Joseph, who was made a type of prime minister of Egypt by the pharaoh of his time. Then, a pharoah ‘who knew nothing of Joseph’ arrived, and horrendously attempted to control the Hebrew population, even demanding the execution of male Hebrew babies when the numbers in the numbers in the Hebrew colony threatened the Egyptian sense of security.
“Meanwhile, a new king of Egypt had arisen, who knew nothing of Joseph. ‘See,’ he said to his people, ‘how the race of the Israelites has grown, till they are stronger than we are. We must go prudently about it and keep them down, or their numbers will grow; what if war threatens, and they make common cause with our enemies? They will get the better of us, and leave our country altogether…’ Then the king of Egypt gave orders to Sephora and Phua, the midwives who attended the Hebrews, ‘When you are called in, he said, to attend the Hebrew women, and their time comes, kill the child if it is a boy; if it is a girl keep it alive.'”
Exodus 1: 8-10, 16
One little boy from the tribe of Levi was rescued by his mother and found his way into the house of an Egyptian princess, and was given the same fortune as Joseph: a good education, and a measure of governorship. Fleeing Egypt after committing a crime, Moses was discovered by the God of the Hebrew patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Commanded by the Holy One, Moses returned to Egypt and, with the assistance of his relation, the Levite Aaron, he conducted a supernatural destruction of Egypt’s fortunes, and led the Hebrew people out into the wilderness of the Sinai peninsula. The miraculous events that tortured the Egyptian people have been cemented into the imagination of Hebrews, Jews and Christians over the ages, culminating as they did in the parting of the Red Sea. Here is that extraordinary episode, in the excellent recent animated film, the Prince of Egypt (1998):
The rest of the book is almost a prophecy of the later history of the Hebrew people, for, despite these great miracles that had been handed down from father to children for generations, the people kept falling again into the idolatry and paganism of the cultures around them, as the rest of the Old Testament demonstrates. And so here, having passed into the wilderness, they complain against God and Moses for leading them into hunger, thirst, etc. Then they arrive at Mount Horeb and they see fire descending upon the mountain. Moses disappears into the brightness on the mountaintop for weeks and the people decide to fall back into idolatry. The rest of the book is about their reconciliation with God, through the pleading of Moses, the first priest of the new religion, and about the beginning and detailed description of the religious cult of the Hebrews, which would end centuries later in the Jerusalem Temple, the heart of the Hebrew religion until its final destruction in AD 70.
The following two videos provide a good, pictorial overview of the book of Exodus:
Catholic Louth and Mablethorpe 