Wednesday, April 10, 2013

The Bible Series Review: The Exodus #2




Alrighty, it’s time for Episode 2’s review. This episode was entitled “The Exodus”

The Man Moses

I loved the young Moses! I think they portrayed him right on! But more about that later.

I had several issues with the ex-prince Moses. From the moment of the burning bush scene (and let me state now that I LOVED the way they portrayed the burning bush itself!), I thought that Moses’ character was completely off. He was almost, dare I say, arrogant in all that he did whether it was stating aloud to himself that he would deliver God’s people, announcing his intentions to his brethren, the way he said that Pharaoh wasn’t a god, and more. It just didn’t like him.

Moses scripturally was an extremely humble man AND he had a major stuttering issue that we first see surface at the burning bush because he’s literally begging God to pick someone else for the task. God finally relents and makes his brother Aaron Moses’ spokesman. None of this is portrayed or even hinted at in the series.

Ethnicities

Again, I loved the portrayal of the young princes of Egypt, I felt like the fighting portrayed was entirely realistic and helped to feed into the beyond brotherly rivalry.

However, I feel like the authentic portrayal of Moses was lost in appearance once the actor switched to the older Caucasian-looking version of Moses.

That said, I feel like Roma Downey and Mark Burnett did a great job casting an overall group of actors who looked the from the court of Pharaoh to the Israelites.

Brotherly Behaviour

As aforementioned, I felt the portrayal of the young Moses and Ramses was well-planned and I loved Moses’ indicated affection and happiness for his would-be royal nephew.

However, I thought the treatment of Moses and Aaron by Pharaoh’s soldiers was unrealistic. I do not think it consistent to portray the physical abuse of the Levite brothers who are the instruments of the ten plagues on Egypt. The soldiers would have been terrified of Moses and his brother! Scripture never indicates or even hinted that Pharaoh was able to rough up Moses and Aaron although I’m sure that those were Pharaoh’s sentiments.

Where is the Hyssop??

Another issue that any student of the Bible or Pentateuch would have caught was the lack of hyssop at the first Passover.

And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. (Exodus 12:22)

God doesn’t command anything haphazardly, so to exclude the hyssop from the process of the painting of the door lintels was a definite error to me.

The signification of "hyssop," is external truth, which is a means of purification. (Bible Meanings Info

To leave out the hyssop is to leave out the element of purification entirely.

People Problems

My last point is that I felt the disobedience of the people wasn’t even related to whether that was the people collectively, Miriam and Aaron speaking against Moses, and Moses’ frustration with the people which led to his disobedience against God. All of these instances of disobedience caused the children of Israel—leadership included—to miss the Promise Land altogether. All we see is Moses receiving the 10 Commandments and telling Joshua that he will lead the Israelites into Canaan.

I understand that time is a huge constraint for what is and is not portrayed in The Bible Series, yet I feel that certainly spiritually significant elements could be portrayed better and more frequently.

That said, I did enjoy episode and look forward to viewing the rest!

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