The Pillar of Fire; or, Israel in Bondage

by J. H. Ingraham

LETTER IX.

REMESES OF DAMASCUS TO SESOSTRIS.

City of On.

My very dear Father:

You will read what I am about to write, with the profoundest interest. The two mighty Hebrews again sought an audience of the king, and boldly demanded the freedom of Israel.

This meeting did not take place in the palace of On, but in that at Memphis, on the avenue of the pyramids. Pharaoh was seated in the court of the palace, giving audience to the governors of the thirty-nine nomes, which now constitute the number of his provinces. When he had ended his instructions to them, Moses and Aaron were announced. I stood near him conversing with the prince; for I knew that the two men of God purposed to seek the king's presence.

"How darest thou announce these Hebrews?" cried the king, sharply, to his trembling grand-chamberlain.

"I could not forbid them, O king! I fled instinctively and without power of resistance before the majesty of their presence. Behold them advancing!"

Pharaoh turned pale. He essayed to give some fierce order to those about him, but his tongue failed him.

"Who will slay me these men?" cried the Prince Amunophis, seeing the king's troubled looks.

Not a man moved. Awe and curiosity took the place of all other feelings. Side by side the two brothers came unfalteringly forward till they stood before the monarch,—fixing their regards only upon him.

"What are ye come for, Moses and Aaron?" at length he uttered, in a thick voice. "Have I spared your lives, that you might come again to mock me in my palace?"

"We are come, O king," answered Moses with dignity, and looking far more kingly than he whom he addressed—"we are come in the name of the God of the Hebrews. He hath heard their cry from all the land of Egypt, by reason of their taskmasters, and I am sent to command thee, in His name, to send the children of Israel out of thy land!"

"Have I knowledge of your God? What is His power? Let Him make Himself known! Or, if He hath sent thee to me, where are thy credentials from His hand? I listen to no ambassadors from God or man, unless they show me that they are sent. By what sign wilt thou declare thy mission? If a king sent thee, show me his handwriting; if a god, show me a miracle!"

Aaron held the rod of Moses in his hand, and casting it upon the marble pavement of the court, it became a serpent, slowly gliding along the floor and flashing fire from its eyes. The servants of Pharaoh fled before it. The king upon his throne, at first, became alarmed, but seeing the monster inflate its throat and stretch lazily and innocuously along the lion-skin before his footstool, he smiled contemptuously and said—

"Thy Arabian life has given thee great skill, O Moses. Ho! call my magicians! I have magi that can equal thy art!"

All was expectation, until at length two stately personages solemnly entered, each with his acacia rod. They were Jambres and Jannes, the royal and chief magicians of Egypt, of whose fame other lands have heard. They were dark-featured, Arabic-looking men, and dressed with great magnificence, wearing robes blazing with gold and jewels. Their bearing was haughty and imperious, and they looked about them with disdain, as if they were beings of a better order than the Egyptians, who stood awed, or prostrated themselves in their presence.

"Seest thou this serpent?" demanded Pharaoh, directing the attention of Jambres to the monster, which lay coiled upon the lion-skin before the steps of the throne; while several of the guard with spears stood near, to thrust it through, should it approach the king. The magicians regarded it with surprise, and then looked fixedly at Moses and Aaron. They had evidently heard by the messengers, what had passed. "Half an hour since, he was a rod in the hand of that Hebrew magician!" said the king. "Show him thy art, and that we have gods whose servants can do as great miracles as this!"

The magicians advanced and said—

"O king, beloved of the sun, live forever! Behold the power of thy own magicians!" Thus speaking, they cast their rods upon the ground, when they became serpents also, after a few moments had transpired. Pharaoh then said, addressing the Hebrew brothers—

"Ye are but impostors, and have done your miracle by the gods of Egypt, as my magicians do."

"If the god of Egypt be strongest, let his serpents destroy my serpent: but if the God of the Hebrews be the greatest and the only God, let my serpent devour his!" Thus quietly spake Aaron.

"So be it," answered Pharaoh.

In a moment, the serpent of Moses uncoiled himself, and fiercely seizing, one after another, the two serpents of the magicians, swallowed them. At this there was an outcry among the people; and, greatly terrified, Pharaoh half-rose from his throne; but Aaron catching up the serpent, it became a rod as before. Instead of acknowledging the God of Moses, the king became exceedingly enraged against his own magicians, and drove them from him, and ordered Moses and Aaron to depart, saying that they were only more skilful sorcerers than the others, and must show him greater signs than these ere he would let Israel go. I have since learned, that these magicians brought with them real serpents, which they have the power of stiffening, and holding at arm's length by pressing upon their throats: that they came with these, which could not be detected in the obscurity of the shadows where they stood, and casting them down they resumed their natural motions. That the rod of Moses should devour them, and return to a rod again, ought to have shown Pharaoh that it was a miracle, and not sorcery. But his heart seems to be hardened against all impressions of this nature.

The following morning, the governor of the nilometer having reported to the king that the Nile had commenced to rise, Pharaoh, according to custom, proceeded to the river, where the statue of Nilus stands, and where he had caused the Hebrew boy to be sacrificed and his blood poured as a libation into the stream. Here, with great pomp, he was about to celebrate the festivities of the happy event, when, lo! Moses and Aaron stood before him by the river's brink,—the latter with the rod, which had been turned into a serpent, in his hand.

"The Lord God of the Hebrews," cried Moses in a loud voice, "hath sent me unto thee, saying, 'Let My people go.' Lo! hitherto thou wouldst not hear. Now thus saith the Lord—'In this thou shalt know that I am the Lord!' Behold, O king, at His command, I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned into blood!"

"I defy you and your God, and both of ye shall die!" answered Pharaoh, pale with anger.

Then Moses, turning calmly to Aaron, his brother, said, in my hearing, and in that of the king and all his people, "Take this rod of God, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and vessels of stone."

Aaron, obeying, stretched forth his hand with the rod and smote the water at his feet, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of the thousands of Egyptians present, and in a moment the Nile ran blood instead of water, the fish in hundreds rose to the surface and died, and the smell of blood filled all the atmosphere. The people uttered a great cry, and Pharaoh looked petrified with horror. From the galleys on the river, from the women on the opposite shore, from avenues, terraces, and plains, from every side, rose a loud and terrible wail, such as was never before heard. The king sought his chariot, and fled from the face of Moses and Aaron, and all was wild dismay. These two servants of the God, whose words had wrought this great wonder, then walked calmly away. I felt too much awed to come near them, and in my chariot sought my own palace. On the way I saw that the canals were red with blood, also the standing pools, the lakes, and every body of water. Men were running in every direction seeking for water; women wrung their hands, and despair and fear were impressed upon every countenance. As I passed the fountains in the court of Pharaoh's palace, I saw that they also spouted forth blood; and in the corridor and porticos, the water in the vases for guests, in the earthen jars for filtering, and in those which stood in the cisterns, was of the same crimson hue. When I reached my own apartments, lo! there also the water in the vases and ewers was of the color of blood. The voice of Moses, empowered by his God, had indeed turned all the waters of Egypt into blood. Surely, I said, now will the king let Israel go. In the afternoon I went forth, and saw the Egyptians digging everywhere for fresh water, along the canals and river. I drove out of the city towards Goshen, and saw all the people in motion and terror, for but few knew the cause of the awful visitation. After an hour I reached Goshen, the fair plain where Prince Jacob once dwelt, and where now the children of Israel dwell by hundreds of thousands. With joyful surprise I beheld, as I entered the province, that the canal was free from blood, the pools sparkling with clear water, and the fountains bright as crystal. As I rode on in the direction of the dwelling of Moses, I perceived that the plague of blood had not fallen upon the land where the Hebrews dwelt—only upon the Egyptians. This was a twofold miracle.

When Pharaoh found that water could be obtained by digging shallow wells, and also that Goshen was free from the plague, he sent for Jambres and Jannes, and offered to pardon them if they could turn water into blood. They commenced their incantations upon water dug up from his gardens—for the miracle of the rod covered only the waters at the time on the surface, whether in the river or in houses. After art had for some time been practised upon the water, to my surprise it was turned to the semblance of blood.

"See," cried Pharaoh with great joy, "the servants of Pharaoh are equal to the servants of the Hebrew God!"

"And O king," said Jambres vainly, "had the Hebrew juggler left us the Nile, we could have turned that also by our enchantments."

Then Pharaoh rewarded him with a chain of gold, and hardened his heart, and defied Moses and his God. But in three days afterwards all the fish died in the lakes, and river of Lower Egypt, and a stench of their flesh and of crocodiles and reptiles that perished by the blood in the river, and the difficulty of getting water, rendered Egypt almost uninhabitable. Thousands fled to the pure air and water of Goshen, where also I remained. Every hour I expected to behold a royal courier coming for Moses and Aaron, ordering them to appear before the king, to receive permission to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt. At the end of seven days the river and waters of Egypt resumed their natural color and purity, by God's permission, lest all the people of Egypt should die for Pharaoh's hardness of heart.

Then God appeared again unto Moses, and commanded him to go before Pharaoh with the same message as before. But the king, in great fury, ordered them from his presence, when Aaron stretched forth his hand over the streams, the river, the canals, lakes, and fountains, and in a moment myriads of frogs appeared on the shores, in the fields, in the streets, squares, corridors, terraces, gardens, groves, and porticos of the temples. They leaped upon every place, upon the people, upon the stairways. They found their way by hundreds into the houses and bedchambers, and upon the beds, tables, chairs of palaces and huts; leaped into the ovens and kneading-troughs, and occupied every place. In horror the priests closed all the temples, lest they should enter, and dying there, defile them. Even Pharaoh was obliged to shut himself up in the recesses of his palace to escape their loathsome presence.

In great alarm, he was about to send for Moses, when Jambres, his chief sorcerer, stood before him, and said:

"O king, believe not that the God of this Hebrew is greater than the gods of Egypt. Thy servants also can do this enchantment."

"Do so, and thou shalt have a rod of gold," answered the king.

Then descending into a fountain, inclosed by a high wall of the palace, where the frogs had not yet appeared, the magician caused frogs also to appear. "At first," said the chief butler, who spoke to me of this deed, "the king was greatly pleased, but suddenly said:

"'What thou hast produced by thy enchantments, remove by thy enchantments. Command them to disappear from the fountain.'

"This the two magicians not being able to do, the next day, the frogs rendering every habitation uninhabitable, and the lords of Egypt appealing to Pharaoh, he sent for Moses and Aaron. It had become time to do so. Every part of my rooms was filled with these animals; they got into the plates and cups, and defiled every place—while by night their combined roar filled all Egypt with a deafening and terrible noise, so that if a bed could be found to sleep in, sleep was nowhere possible; and by day we could tread nowhere but upon frogs."

When the two Hebrew brothers again stood in the presence of Pharaoh, he said, with mingled shame and displeasure—

"Entreat your God to take away this plague of frogs from me, my people, and the land of Egypt; and if thou canst free the land from them, I will acknowledge that it is the power of the God of the Hebrews, and will let the people go to do sacrifice unto the Lord, who hath commanded and sent for them."

Then Moses answered the king—

"The Lord shall be entreated as thou desirest; and thou, O king, shalt set the time, lest thou shouldst say I consulted a favorable aspect of the stars. Choose when I shall entreat for thee to remove this plague from the land, the people, and their houses."

"To-morrow," answered Thothmeses.

"Be it according to thy word," answered Moses; "and when thou seest the plague removed at the time appointed by thee, know it is God's gracious act, and not our sorcery. To-morrow the frogs in all the land of Egypt shall be found in the river only."

What a scene did Egypt present the next morning! The land was covered with dead frogs; and it took all the people of Egypt that day and night to gather them into heaps and cast them into the river: for they threatened a pestilence.

When Pharaoh saw that his wish was granted at the time he named, and that there was a respite, he said—"This was by my voice and my power, and not by their God, that the frogs died on the morrow I named! The glory over Moses shall indeed be mine, as he hath said!" Ceasing to speak, he sent orders to the taskmasters to increase the burdens of the Hebrews, refusing to keep his promise to Moses and Aaron.

Then the Lord again sent them before Pharaoh, and in his presence Aaron stretched forth his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, when all the dust of the earth became alive, and rested upon man and beast in the form of lice!

Then, in a rage, Pharaoh called his enchanters, but they could not perform this miracle, and said plainly to the king—

"This is beyond our power. This is the finger of their God."

Upon hearing this, Pharaoh drove both his magicians, and Moses and Aaron forth from his palace. The next day no sacrifice was offered, no temple open in all Egypt; for on the priests were lice, and no one could perform an official act with any insect upon his person, being thereby made unclean. The Egyptians were enraged, both with the Hebrews and with their king—but, shut up in his palace, he refused to consent to the demands of Moses.

Three days afterwards, by the command of God, given at the well of Jacob,—where, in a bright cloud like a pillar of fire, He descended to speak with Moses, and seemed to be now every day present in Egypt, in communion with his holy servant,—the two brothers again sought the presence of the king, as he was entering his galley. Reiterating their usual demand, Moses continued—

"The Lord hath said unto me, 'Stand before Pharaoh when he comes forth to the water, and say unto him, thus saith the Lord, 'Let my people go; else, if thou wilt not let my people go, I will send swarms of flies upon thee and thy servants, and upon thy people, and the houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with them, and also the ground; and I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there; to the end that thou mayest know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. And I will put a division between my people and thy people; and to-morrow shall this sign be!'"

Pharaoh, in fear and anger, commanded his galley to leave the shore, heeding none of the words spoken by Moses. The next day when I awoke, lo! the air was darkened with flies. They covered the city like a cloud, and their noise was like the roar of the sea after a storm. When the sun was well risen, they descended and alighted upon the dwellings, and soon filled the houses, and rooms, and every place they could penetrate. It was impossible to hear for their hum, or to see for their number, as they would alight upon the face, seek the corners of the eyes and the edges of the eyelids, and inflict their bite. In a few hours the Egyptians became frantic under the plague, as it was impossible to keep them off; and if driven away, they would pertinaciously return to the attack. All employment in Egypt ceased. Eating and sleeping were impracticable. I fled in my chariot towards Goshen! My horses, stung to madness, flew like the wind. Hundreds of women, and children, and men were pressing in the same direction, for safety and relief. I crossed the great canal which divides the province, and not a fly followed me nor my horses across the aerial and invisible barrier God had set as their bounds. All Goshen was free from the plague, and the Hebrews were extending favors to the Egyptians who sought shelter among them.

The next day, Pharaoh, unable to endure the plague, and finding his magicians could neither remove nor cause it, sent for Moses and Aaron, who immediately answered his summons.

"Go," he cried, when he beheld them,—"go, sacrifice to thy God in this land; for He is a mighty God, and may not be mocked!"

"It is not meet, O king," answered Moses, "that we should sacrifice to our God in the land of Egypt. We Hebrews sacrifice bulls and rams, sacrifices abominable to the Egyptians, who call them their gods! Lo! shall we sacrifice the gods of the Egyptians to our God, before their eyes, and will they not stone us? If we sacrifice, we will go three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the Lord our God as He shall command us."

Seeing the resolute purpose of the terrible Hebrew, Pharaoh consented to his demand, only adding, "Ye shall not go very far away! Now go and entreat your God for me, for the removal of these flies!"

While this discourse was passing between them, the fan-bearers of the king, with all their diligence, could not protect his face from the stings of the flies, which plagued him sorely; while upon Aaron and Moses not one alighted.

"To-morrow," answered Moses, as he went out, "the Lord, whom I will entreat for thee, shall remove this plague also. But deal not deceitfully, O king, any more, in not letting the people go."

When, the next day, Pharaoh saw that the flies were removed, so that not one remained, he repented that he had given his promise, and resolved not to keep it with Moses.

Once more God sent his servants, the two Hebrews, to the king, demanding the release of the children of Jacob from their yoke of bondage, menacing him with a murrain upon all the cattle, horses, camels, and beasts of Egypt, if he resolved to hold them still in the land. The king, however, who seemed after every demand to grow more obstinate when the evil had passed, refused, and sent them away with threats of vengeance. Indeed, it is surprising, my dear father, that he hath not slain them before this; and I have no doubt he is miraculously restrained from doing so, by the Almighty God, whose faithful and holy servants they are.

On the morrow, according to the word of Moses, a fatal pestilence seized upon the oxen, the bulls, and cows of Egypt, so that all the cattle in the land died. When the priests of the sacred ox, Mnevis, came rushing from their temple to the palace, crying that their god was dead with the murrain; when at midnight came before him the priests of Apis, exclaiming that the sacred bull was also dead, then Pharaoh began to know and feel that the God of the Hebrews was greater than the gods of Egypt. Early in the morning, when he rose, hearing that not one of the cattle of the Israelites was dead, instead of repenting and trembling, he became enraged, acting like a man blinded by the gods, when they would destroy him by his own acts.

Judge, my dear father, of the patience and forbearance of the God of the Hebrews towards him who still refused to acknowledge His power. Behold the firmness and steadiness of purpose of Moses and Aaron,—their courage and independence! What a sublime spectacle—two private men contending successfully with the most powerful king on the earth! What a painful sight to see this most powerful king of the earth measuring the strength of his feeble will against the power of the God of the universe!

Upon the refusal of Pharaoh to let Jehovah have His people, that they might serve Him, God commanded Moses in a vision of the night, beside the fountain of Jacob, where He talked with him as in the burning bush, to take the ashes of a human sacrifice, to be immolated by Pharaoh the next day, and sprinkle it towards heaven upon the winds. He did so; and instead of protecting the places wheresoever its atoms were carried, they broke out in boils upon man and beast, breaking forth with painful blains. The magicians and sorcerers, essaying to recover their credit with the king, attempted to do the same miracle; but the boil broke forth upon them also so heavily, that they could not stand before Moses, and fled with pain and cries from his presence. Yet Pharaoh remained obdurate, and grew more hardened and defiant; for the boils touched not his own flesh.

That night, the Lord appeared unto Moses, and commanded him again to make his demand upon Pharaoh for His people. Then stood Moses and Aaron in the morning before the king, who was walking up and down in the corridor of his palace, ill at ease; for all his public works were stopped by the sufferings of the Egyptians; and his soldiers in the fourscore garrisons at On, and Memphis, and Bubastis, and Migdol, were unfit for military duty. There was not a well man in all Egypt, save in Goshen.

"What now, ye disturbers of Egypt and enemies of the gods?" he called aloud, as he saw them approach and stand before him.

"Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews," answered Moses: "'Let my people go, that they may serve me.'"

"The same words! Thou shalt never have thy wish,—thou nor thy God! Who is the Lord? Will no man rid me of this Moses and Aaron? Speak! What more?"

"Thus saith the Lord, 'If thou, O king, refusest to let Israel go, I will send all my plagues upon thy heart, and upon thy people, that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth! For this cause, O Pharaoh, have I created thee and raised thee up on the throne of Egypt, that in thee I may show my power; and that by my dealings with thee, My name may be declared throughout all the earth. All nations shall behold My works with thee, and My vengeance on thy gods, and shall know that I am the Lord, and God of all gods! Thou art My servant to show forth My glory! Thy proud heart exaltest thyself above Me, and against My people, and thou wouldst contend with Me! Thou shalt know I am God, ere thou shalt be cut off from the earth; and that the heavens are My throne, and the earth is My footstool, and none can say, What doest Thou? Behold, to-morrow I will darken the heavens with clouds, and send hail upon the earth, and every man and beast in the field shall die by the hail.' If thou regardest the life of thy servants," continued Moses, "send, therefore, for all thou hast in the field."

This threat was made known everywhere in a few hours, and those who fear the word of the Lord have made their servants and cattle flee into the houses prepared for them; but those who regard not the warning have left them in the field. What will to-morrow bring forth?

Farewell, dear father.

Warned by Aaron, I depart at once for the sheltering skies of Goshen.

Your loving son,

Remeses of Damascus.