Moses Story is just a Fiction
Moses story is the most important story in the Old Testament. So, we need to examine how a devoted Jew would look at Moses Story from his perspective. Moses Story was the most important story which influenced Jesus thoughts. We can not understand Jesus ministry without knowing Moses Story. Moses Story gave Jesus courage, determination, and absolute trust in God's active participation and intervention in the affairs of the Israelites. Moses Story is the only story of the Old Testament which shows the power of God which actively fought for Israelites and he crushed and humiliated Pharaoh's Might with such ease. Moses Story is the only story of the Bible which God physically lives in a tent amongst the Israelites.
Moses story also brought God Commandments to the Israelites and it showed explicitly what God expects from his chosen people. This story showed so clearly how God would fulfill all Israelites' needs and how Israelites suppose to follow and administer whole heartily all of God's Commandments. This story also showed how God can force his commands and nothing can oppose his will. Moses Story is very clear about what happens to the Israelites if they do not follow the Ten Commandments.
Now, let us examine Moses Story logically. We need to explore at least two aspects of Moses Story. First of all to examine if the story is a historic event or it is a fiction. And second what is the possible motif behind this fascinating and elaborate story which the writer is really wants to achieve and to promote.
There have been numerous research and archeological commissions, dedicated mainly on finding and verifying the historical evidence of this famous Story. Unfortunately so far none of those efforts could produce a single proof in support of the historic event. There are numerous publications and articles regarding the place where the Red Sea was departed and the Israelites crossed the Red Sea. There are countless books and articles about the validity or lack of validity of Moses Story. Hollywood has produced many movies about this exciting Story. This elaborate story has fascinated Man for over 3000 years. Here, I will show you in few short passages that Moses story has to be a FICTION.
Archeologists have spent enormous energy and resources to find supporting evidence in Egypt and other ancient sites regarding the Israelites' Exodus, but they could not find a single reference regarding the Jewish Exodus anywhere, except in the Old Testament. Archeologists comb through Sinai desert for the evidence of Israelites mass migration. There is not a shrewd of archeological evidence of such a large migration. According to the Torah in book of Exodus: 38:26 . . . from twenty years old or older, number of Israelites is reported 603,550. In book of Numbers 26:51 The number of the Israelites is reported 601,730. This is the Number of Israelite men over the age of twenty, not counting the women and the children. There should have been tons of evidence of such big mass of people lived in Sinai desert for forty years. There should be some broken pottery, some domestic animal bones, some human's tombs, human's waste, and so on. But there is no evidence of such a great migration!
At the end of the day there are a lot of confusions about the Moses Story. The Believers have firm faith in the story and in God, and the non believers are puzzled how could such huge number of people fall for a story which could not be verified anywhere?
For the evidences I suggest; you do not have to look far. The evidences are right in the story; they are screaming at us for recognition; we only have to look for them very carefully.
In our modern day to report the truth about any story, the news media interview the eye witnesses. The law enforcements interrogate the eye witnesses. Our courts get the testimonies of the witnesses to find out the truth. The eye witnesses give the first hand information about any story and based on those testimonies we try to construct the truth.
Were there any eye witnesses for the Moses Story? Of course there were; the Israelites who made the great migration were our witnesses. They witnessed all the events first hand. Did those Israelites give any testimony regarding those events? Yes they did. Their actions were recorded right in the Moses Story and I am going to look closely to those actions to see if I can figure out what happened.
In book of Exodus 19:1 In the third month after the Israelites went out from the land of Egypt, on the very day, they came to the Desert of Sinai. Three month after crossing the Red Sea the Israelites met God in person. In Exodus 19:10 God is clearly preparing the Israelites to see him. God personally came down on Mount Sinai and people could see his glory and could hear his voice:
Exodus 19:16 And on the third day in the morning there were thunders and lightning and a dense cloud on the mountain, and the sound of a very loud horn; and all the people who were in the camp trembled. 19:17 And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their place at the lower end of the mountain. 19:18 Now Mount Sinai was completely covered with smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire; and its smoke went up like the smoke of a great furnace, and the whole mountain shook greatly. 19:19 When the sound of the horn grew louder and louder, Moses was speaking and God was answering him with a voice.
19:20 And the Lord came down on Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain; and the Lord summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.
19:24 And the Lord said to him, Go, get down. And you will come up, and Aaron with you; but do not let the priests and the people force their way through to come up to the Lord,
Also, in Exodus 20:1 through 20:17 God personally told people about the Ten Commandments. Then Moses went to the Mount Sinai to receive the Tablets of the Ten Commandments. It took Moses forty days to receive the Ten Commandments Tablets, meanwhile the Israelites did something very peculiar: Exodus 32:1 When the people saw that Moses delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered together around Aaron and said to him, "Get up, make us gods that will go before us. As for this fellow Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him!"
Those Israelites had witnessed a lot of miracles including the greatest, the most fascinating Miracles in whole Bible; the Passover, the Crossing of the Red Sea, and so on. Those Israelites had seen the total annihilation of the Egyptian army and the humiliation of mighty Pharaoh. Each of those Israelites individually had seen the Glory of God, and they had heard his voice. And now just three month after Crossing of the Red Sea, just few weeks after seeing the Glory of God on Mount Sinai and hearing his voice, those Israelites had rebelled against Moses and God!? Those Israelites wished to abandon the mighty God and they desired to have a golden molten calf as their gods!?
THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE! YES, TRULY UNBELIEVABLE! SO UNBELIEVABLE, THAT YOU CAN SAY FOR SURE IT DID NOT HAPPEN, AND THE WHOLE STORY MUST BE A FICTION.
I guess those rebellious Israelites before rebelling against Moses they could not simply climb Mount Sinai and look for Moses and then make their PECULIAR MOVE! According to the story God was still up there talking to Moses! And probably his glory could be seen from the foot of the Mount Sinai! As we read; Moses in very short time climbed up the mountain and came back to take Aaron with him and they both climbed up the mountain again. So Mount Sinai could not be that high. Beside on Exodus 19:24 Aaron accompanied Moses to the top of Mount Sinai to meet God. Then how could this High Priest violate his own duty and make a Golden Calf for the rebels!?
Any person witnessing so many miracles first hand could not behave so strangely! These Israelites could not simply deny the most powerful God who actively was fighting for them, who was helping them, who was feeding them everyday, and who showed them so many miracles. The odd behavior of those Israelites defies any logic that we could imagine. No creature on this Earth could behave that strangely.
Nobody can accept that once upon a time there was a tribe on the surface of this Earth that they personally saw such Impressive Miracles from God and they personally saw the glory of God first hand and then they turned around and they rejected Mighty God! This can not be! I can not accept this, even if you claim those Israelites were hypnotized or they were drugged by the Egyptians!
Besides, those Israelites were not just any people, they were the chosen people! Their ancestors had long history and traditions and covenants with the Invisible God. They had very intimate relation with the Invisible God. They were very familiar with the Invisible God and they had been worshipping the Invisible God throughout of their history. The Invisible God had been with them for many generations, helping them, guiding them, giving them their laws, defining their moral values, their identities, and so on. Even when they were in bondage in Egypt, those Israelites still were worshipping the Invisible God! Those Israelites had never worshipped the Golden Calf before! And now, all of sudden, those Israelites were abandoning their Mighty God!? And they wanted to replace that familiar, powerful, and helping God with a Golden Calf which it could not do anything!? Come on, this is too much! There should be a limit to the human insanity! This is such a disgrace to the Human Intelligence which I am not finding the right word to express my disbelief. No matter how simple minded one can get, they should not accept such an unbelievable story as a historical event!
Besides, what made those Israelites so sure that Pharaoh would take them back? Pharaoh had been humiliated, he had lost his army, and he had suffered so much prestige. So it would have been unlikely that Pharaoh would welcome them back. Didn't Pharaoh chase the Israelites before they escaped by crossing the Red Sea!? Pharaoh chased them not to get them back, but to destroy them! Now that Pharaoh had lost his army because of them, what do think Pharaoh would do to them if he could get his hands on them!?
Let us look at that strange behavior from another angle. If you treat harshly any animal which is in captivity, then that animal would escape the first opportunity that it could get and it would never look back. Now, those Israelites Voluntarily wanted to go back to the harsh slavery condition? This defies the behavior of any living creatures on this Earth. Moses Story argues that those Israelites in Sinai desert were in desperate situation, fearing a certain death. This is simply not true, because the story ignores the HELPING GOD who was actively protecting them and was providing for them EVERY DAY. This is totally a different scenario from the WWII Holocaust situation, as one Jewish scholar put it this way: "During the Holocaust in WWII, God was on vacation!" The situation of Israelites in Sinai was very different; God was actively interested in those Israelites and everyday was providing for them bread from heaven and some meat from birds. Heck, God even came down to Mount Sinai to meet with those Israelites in person! No other human's experience can top that! God cared for those Israelites in an unprecedented manner. Never before or ever after God acted in that manner again. God openly revealed his power, his glory, and his presence to those Israelites. God's interaction with those Israelites as incredible and remarkable as it sounds still it does not even come close to the strange behavior of those Israelites toward that helping and caring God! This scenario is impossible beyond any doubt.
The only logic that could bring sanity to those incredible behaviors of the Israelites is accepting the Moses Story as a Fiction. In the realm of fictions the writers can make all kinds of mistakes!
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