The history of Moses is so intimately and thoroughly inter-blended with
that of the Jews, that, to present the character of one, is to present
the character of the other. We shall therefore devote but a brief
chapter to a special exposition of his character, as it will be
found fully set forth in the history of the Jews, and the practical
illustration of their moral character.
No religious chieftain ever claimed to be on more intimate terms with
God, and no writer ever presented a more dishonorable exhibition of his
character. He made God the author of nearly every thing he said and did,
no matter how wicked, how cruel, how demoralizing, or how shocking to
decency or refined moral sensibilities. If some of his characteristics
of God are not blasphemous, we can have but little use for the word.
Some of his laws serve as an illustration of this statement. He says,
"The Lord spake unto Moses," and told him that no person with a flat
nose or crooked back or broken hand, a crooked eye, or who was lame or
possessing any kind of a physical blemish, should be admitted into the
congregation of the Lord (Lev. xxi.) This was punishing the unfortunate
for defects they could not help, thus aggravating the misfortunes of
a class who, above all others, had special claims upon his kindness on
account of the very defects for which they were excluded. These laws,
and many others no better, sufficiently illustrate the character of the
man. His penal code, which inflicted death for two hundred acts, many of
them no crime at all (such as picking up sticks on the sabbath to make a
fire to cook their food with), furnishes conclusive evidence that he
was a cruel and unmerciful lawgiver. And the fact that he was almost
constantly engaged in a bloody warfare with neighboring nations, with
the avowed determination to exterminate them, and "leave nothing alive
that breathes," simply because they preferred to worship some other
God than the cruel Jehovah, leads to the conclusion that he was a
bloody-minded warrior. Had Christ lived under the Hebrew monarchy,
Moses' laws would have put him to death; and yet they both claimed
to derive their moral code from the same God, the Jewish Jehovah. A
circumstance is related of Moses killing an Egyptian, and hiding him
in the sand. And it is stated, "He looked this way and that way" before
committing the deed, and then concealed the dead body. This implies that
he felt guilty, and that it was an act of murder in the first degree.
Although every chapter of Moses' history proves him to have been a
cruel and bloody-minded barbarian, with a moral code possessing but
a slight exhibition of the elements of mercy, humanity, and justice, yet
Dr. Gaussel, in his "Theopneustia," calls him "a holy and divine man,"
and says, "He was such a prophet, that his holy books were placed above
all the rest of the Old Testament." The doctor furnishes us one of the
many cases of the blinding and biasing effect of a perverted religious
education, and an argument in favor of laboring to supersede Bible
religion with something better. Here we will notice it as a curious
circumstance, that, after Jehovah had occupied but six days in creating
eighty-five millions of worlds, and made most of them in a few hours,
it should have taken him and Moses both forty days to write a law, and a
very imperfect one at that. And then it would seem it took Jehovah three
thousand years to make a devil, as his Satanic Majesty does not figure
in the Jewish hierarchy till after the lapse of that period.
One of the most conspicuous traits in Moses' mental composition was
an unbounded self-esteem. Although he claimed to be in constant
consultation with Jehovah, he seldom yielded to his advice when it
conflicted with his own judgment. On the contrary, he several times
detected his God in error, and admonished him, and entered into an
argument to convince him that he was wrong; and, of course, he always
came out first best in the logical contest. Take, for example, the case
of Aaron making the golden calf. It occurred while he and Jehovah were
engaged in writing "the holy law" on Mount Sinai. When the case became
known to Jehovah, it so disturbed and aggravated him, that he at once
declared he would not only punish the guilty sinner,--the apostate
Aaron,--but would exterminate the whole race. But the better tempered
and more considerate Moses began to reason and remonstrate against such
a rash act. He appealed to his honor and love of approbation, and told
him the Egyptians would report that he was not able to get his "holy
people" to the promised land, and hence killed them to conceal the
failure. "Oh, yes, Moses, you are right! I never thought of that," was
the seeming reply of Jehovah. And thus Moses proved to be smarter than
his God, and enlightened his ignorance.
Here we will call the attention of the reader to the resemblance between
Moses and the still more ancient Egyptian Mises, or Bacchus. It is
so striking, that we can not resist the conviction that they were
originally closely connected with each other. 1. Bacchus, like Moses,
was born in Egypt. 2. Bacchus, or Mises, was also exposed to danger on
the River Nile, like Moses. 3. Bacchus lived on a mountain in Arabia
called Nisas; Moses sojourned on Mount Sinai in Arabia. 4. Bacchus
passed through the Red Sea dry-shod with a multitude of men, women,, and
children, as Moses is represented as doing. 5. Bacchus likewise parted
the waters of the River Orontes, as Moses did those of Jordan. 6.
Bacchus commanded the sun to stand still, as Moses' friend Joshua did.
7. Bacchus, with his wand, caused a spring of wine to spring from the
earth, as Moses did a spring of water to flow from a rock with the "rod
of God," or "the rod of divination." 8. Mises, like Moses, also engraved
his laws on tables of stone. 9. Both have been represented in pictures
with rays coming out of their heads, indicative of the light of the sun.
Thus, it will be observed, the resemblance runs through nearly the whole
line of their history. That Bacchus figured in history anterior to the
time of Moses, no person versed in Oriental history can doubt,--a fact
which impels us to the conclusion that the two stories got mixed before
the history of Moses was written! There is one important chapter in the
practical life of Moses we can not omit to notice before we close his
history, as it furnishes a still fuller illustration of his character.
We allude to his deliverance of "the Lord's holy people" from Egyptian
bondage. Several of the incidents in this narrative are incredibly
absurd; and some of them of such demoralizing tendency, that it becomes
the duty of the moralist to expose them to view. The conduct of his
God Jehovah toward the King of Egypt in this case is so repulsive and
unjust, that it must call forth the condemnation of every honest-minded
reader possessing a true sense of justice.
1. We are told that Jehovah, through Moses, frequently ordered Pharaoh
to let his people go, and then as often hardened his heart that he
should _not_ let them go; and finally punished him with death because he
was unwilling to let them go.
It would certainly be difficult to discover any sense or any justice or
any consistency in such conduct.
2. It looks like not only a strange kind of _justice_, but monstrous
_injustice_, for Jehovah or any God to kill a man for doing what he
had purposely _compelled_ him to do. Live frogs, lice, flies, blood,
vengeance, and death were poured out upon the king and his subjects,
ostensibly for the purpose of compelling him to liberate the Jewish
nation; and yet it was morally impossible for him to do so, because the
same Jehovah had planted in his mind the determination not to let them
go.
3. When Moses spake to Pharaoh in the name of Jehovah to release the
Israelites, the king asked, "Who is the Lord [thy Lord] that I should
obey his voice?" Here let it be borne in mind that different nations had
their own Gods. And Moses' God is here the same itinerant being who had
been rambling about among the bushes, hunting his lost child (Adam),
eating griddle-cakes with Abraham, wrestling all night with Jacob,
getting whipped in a fight with the Canaanites, &c. Pharaoh was
therefore justified in calling for his credentials.
4. In nearly all the contests between Jehovah and other Gods, their
power is fully admitted; and their success was only secondary to that
of the God of Israel. The question was not, Shall Jehovah succeed, and
other Gods fail? but, Shall Jehovah be awarded the first prize in the
contest, and his name stand at the top of the list?
5. There are many texts in the Bible which go to show that Jehovah was
jealous of other Gods, and perpetually in fear of being outgeneraled by
them. "Ye shall know that I am the Lord," was the constant burden of his
song. In the case before us he is represented as saying to Pharaoh, "In
this thou shalt know that _I am the Lord_" (Exod. vii. 17). "It is true
you have a God, and he is very smart and powerful; but he can't come up
to me."
6. Jehovah seems to have been actuated by an aspiration for fame and
power, as well as by a sympathy for his people in this contest with
Pharaoh; for he is represented as saying, "I will get me _honor_ upon
Pharaoh and his host" (Exod. xiv. 17). Here seems to be displayed a
spirit of vanity, and a thirst for glory,--the aspiration of vain rulers
and petty tyrants.
7. The magicians kept up with Moses' God in the performance of miracles
till it came to making lice: here they failed. We might conjecture
it was because all the dust had been already converted into lice by
Jehovah, were it not that they had previously converted the water into
blood just after Jehovah had performed that miracle, and left not a pint
to drink.
8. In the achievement of all the ten prodigies, there is no intimation
but that the heathen magicians performed the miracles in the same manner
that Moses did, and with equal success in most cases and in all the most
difficult ones; thus leaving Jehovah no laurels worth boasting of.
9. There must have been a great many thousand honest men and women in
Egypt; and yet Jehovah is represented as killing the first-born of all
Egyptian parents without any distinction of character, or any regard to
their innocence; and even the first-born of beasts also. In the name of
justice and mercy, what sin had the beasts committed that they had to be
punished?
10. We are somewhat puzzled to see how the magicians could turn all
the waters of Egypt into blood, when it was already blood, having been
converted into blood a short time before by Moses and Jehovah.
11. And it seems strange that Pharaoh should have horses enough for six
hundred "chosen chariots" (Exod. xiv. 7) after they had all been killed,
three or four times by some of the plagues of Egypt.
12. It is not strange that Aaron's rod should swallow up the others as
represented; for he had such a start in the business, and had made such
a large serpent, he had probably used up most of the materials, and left
nothing but scraps for making others.
13. The Christian who can lay down his Bible after reading such stories
as this, and not feel his natural and instinctive love of honesty,
justice, and morality weakened, must be wrongly fortified by nature
against moral corruption.