The Most Consequential Leader in History |
This week, in synagogues around the world, Jews read the first chapters in the biblical book of Exodus. There we meet Moses and read about his birth to enslaved parents, his adoption into the palace and growth as a prince, his defense of an abused slave, his exile, his becoming a shepherd, and his encounter with God at the burning bush. There God commands Moses to go to the most powerful king on earth and demand the liberation of the enslaved Israelites. At first, Moses demurs believing he has no agency to stand before Pharaoh, but God reassures him and inspires in him the courage to do what must be done.
The narrative is infused with Ancient Near Eastern mythology that tells of a slave child becoming the redeemer of his people, but we have no archaeological evidence (except the Hebrew Bible) that Moses ever existed. Nevertheless, he would come to represent the model of prophetic leadership that took root in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and western civilization.
One of the most important aspects of the Moses story is that, on God’s behalf, he destroyed the master-slave order of ancient Egypt and ushered in a new era in which every human being was to be regarded as a creation in the Divine Image and therefore worthy of ultimate dignity, respect, and freedom. (1)
Moses was singularly significant as God’s most intimate and important prophet regardless of the lack of historic evidence that he lived. Scholars have argued that even if no historic evidence outside of the biblical text exists, there had to be a figure like Moses who gave rise to the prophetic........