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| Scene of Moses leading the Israelites, from "The Prince of Egypt: The Musical." Image source. |
[I guess I'll put a spoiler warning: spoilers for the biblical story of the exodus]
Did you know there is a musical version of "The Prince of Egypt"? Yes, this is amazing, I was on a plane recently looking at what movies they had, and they had "The Prince of Egypt: The Musical." !!!!!! I watched it and it was AMAZING. I love the cartoon movie "The Prince of Egypt," and this musical version was all that and more. Seriously, if you're a fan of "The Prince of Egypt," try to get your hands on this musical version, it's incredible. Here's a trailer I found on youtube.
At the end, when the Israelite people are finally free from slavery in Egypt, and they're celebrating, singing the song "When You Believe," I was so into it, thinking to myself "I believe this. I believe in a God who is powerful, who parted the Red Sea and saved people."
And then I was like, wait, what? We're talking about the bible story of the exodus here. I very much do NOT believe this is a true story. For one thing, I've read posts from bible scholars like Peter Enns which say there just isn't archaeological evidence that a huge population of people came out of Egypt and wandered through the desert, eventually settling in Israel. For another thing, the way the plagues would have DEVASTATED the Egyptian economy, if this was a true story. Egyptians would have starved to death, with plague after plague attacking various aspects of their agricultural system. And then the 10th plague, the death of the firstborn sons- every family in Egypt lost their firstborn son. That's horrible. In order to free Their people from slavery, God needs to kill all those innocent children- seriously? That's the God you wanna believe in?
(See also, the best bible fanfic I have ever read: Lament for the Slave Girl in Pharaoh’s House by Micah J. Murray.)
So what's going on with me? Why am I feeling like "I believe this"? What on earth?
So I thought about it for a while and I figured it out. It's the same feeling I had while watching "A Muppet Christmas Carol."
I don't actually care about sending plagues, or parting the Red Sea, or this drama about whose god is the most powerful. I don't believe in any of that. The part I believe in is people being freed from slavery, people celebrating, people working together. Happiness. Freedom. Love.
When people are happy, when people love each other, when people are free from oppression, I believe God is there. But also, we shouldn't wait around for a miracle to happen. We need to help each other. We need to work to make the world better. Don't expect God to come and save us; we have to do the work to save ourselves.
I used to really want to see miracles, because it would be *evidence* and I could be sure my beliefs were *right*. But now I'm like, there are things more important than being right about whether God exists, etc. Things like helping each other. Liberation. Love. Turns out that's what I believe about "The Prince of Egypt."
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