The Pillar of Fire; or, Israel in Bondage

by J. H. Ingraham

"Thou shalt see what I will do to Pharaoh; for he shall let you go, and drive you out of his land. I am the Lord who spake to thee in Horeb, out of the burning bush; and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty. But by my name Jehovah was I not known to them. I have heard the groaning of the children of Israel. Wherefore say unto them, 'I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God; and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you in unto the land which I did swear to give to Abraham, and to Isaac, and to Jacob, and I will give it to you for an heritage. I am the Lord!'"

With these words, Moses sought to comfort the Hebrews, his brethren, going to them and proclaiming it to them in their ears; but for an anguish of spirit, and the great pressure of their cruel bondage upon their minds, they did not hearken unto him. Hope in their bosoms was utterly dead. Moreover, many of them looked on him with eyes of hatred, as the author of this increase of their wretchedness.

What a situation was this for the servant of God! Confident of the power and truth of Jehovah, he could not reconcile therewith this increase of the power of Pharaoh. Perhaps, at times, his own faith was severely tried.

Since then, a month has passed, during which period I saw Moses often in Goshen, where he passed his time in encouraging those of his brethren who would give heed to him.

In the mean while, Pharaoh, as if in contempt or defiance of the God of the Hebrews, has been engaged in extraordinary religious rites; and every day the streets have resounded with the music of instruments and choral songs of processions to the gods. I witnessed all of these ceremonies, and will describe some of them that are not mentioned by you in your letters from Egypt, my dear father.

On the seventh day after Moses and Aaron left him, Thothmeses went in state to the black marble temple of the sacred serpent, Uræus, to offer sacrifice and oblation to its great image of gold with jewelled eyes and hideous head. He addressed it as the god of wisdom and sagacity, and presented offerings of flowers, and a necklace of emeralds; while, for the living serpents, held sacred by the Egyptians, he left gifts of money to purchase food for their repletion.

The next day he proceeded, at the head of the priests and the most magnificent religious procession I have seen in Egypt, from his palace along the sphinx-lined avenue to the terrace of the Nile, opposite the Island of Rhoda, where stands a brazen statue of the god Nilus, with those of Osiris and Thoth on either side of its pedestal.

Descending from his chariot, he advanced to the river, and poured from a goblet, set with diamonds, a libation of wine into its waves, and invoked the river itself as a deity, concluding his prayer with a curse upon the God of the Hebrews. Then, at his command, the chief sacrificer advanced, leading a Hebrew boy four years old, whom he laid upon the altar before the statue of the god, and, at a stroke of his sacrificial knife, sacrificed there. I could scarcely refrain from a cry of horror. I knew that the Egyptians, on certain occasions, sacrificed human beings to the gods; but I never expected to behold an immolation like this. The palpitating form of the child was then taken up by two assistants, and the blood of its heart was poured forth into the Nile, as a libation to the god. The empurpled wave then received the inanimate form, amid a crash of instrumental music. This unusual libation of blood to the Nile was intended as an act of defiance to the Hebrew Jehovah.

The following day, Pharaoh made a procession to the temple of sacred frogs, on the borders of the canal of Amun. Here libations were poured out before a colossal sphinx having a frog's head, and offerings made. The frog is held sacred by the Egyptians, because it is supposed to purify the waters by feeding on poisons in the marshes and river.

The succeeding day Pharaoh, as if possessed with a religious infatuation, that now led him to seek the favor of gods hitherto neglected by him, in his dread of the God of the Hebrews, paid a visit, with all his court, to the temple of the scarabæus, or sacred beetle of Egypt. This is a marble edifice, adorned with a frieze of scarabæi, having heads of every variety of animal. The god himself is a gigantic beetle of black marble, with a human head. He is supposed to protect the temples from vermin, such as lice and fleas; for one of these seen in a temple, or upon the garments of a priest, causes ceremonial defilement, and neither priest nor temple may be made holy again but by purification.