Christian Bale, the actor who is Moses in the movie, is seemingly correct when he considers Moses a schizophrenic personality. Moses in life earned both our admiration and our condemnation. You will hear little about the second terrorist Moses in your Church because mass murder is not a particularly uplifting narrative. Conversely, my expectation is that you will not fully hear of the first Moses, the divinely lead humble servant of the voice of God in the upcoming movie, “Exodus, Gods and Kings”. Hollywood will attempt to nullify the power of the first Moses and demonize all peoples of faith by demonizing the second Moses. Both understandings of Moses, that of the Church and that of Hollywood, are in error and amount to kinder garden stuff.
The question that should be asked of the movie and the biblical narrative is whether Moses had a psychological or a spiritual impairment. The movie will say that the story is about the psyche of Moses but allow me to argue for the latter, the spiritual understanding of the man. The central starring character in the biblical narrative is not Moses but God, the divine reality who rules the heavens and the earth. As long as Moses was a humble servant of the voice of God, God took actions to defeat the Egyptian power grabbing God imposter, Pharaoh. Moses got into trouble when he got in the way of God and also became a power grabber and like Moses we humans are cursed with a like desire to be the man, the up front game changer, the one to make a spectacular impression upon this world.
As a young man, Moses tried to bring change his way, the human way, with violence and killing. The news got out and he fled in fear into the desert and decades of isolation from his God and his people. Moses slowly yielded, let go of his plans and just listened. Surprise, surprise, God took action as the central character in the rescue of the called out people of Palestine, the people of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. When Moses stood before Pharaoh it was always, “God said, let my people go!” It was not a request but Moses had no earthly power to enforce the demand of God. Pharaoh laughed. It is a grand story worthy to be told over and over again, the movie is therefore welcomed but no matter how good may be the movie, the movie will not do the events justice.
The Bible comes out the winner in the realm of storytelling for it preserves the whole story, the good, the bad and the ugly, so that we can make a truly informed life decision. As for the movie, one can always hope.
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca.
