The Pillar of Fire; or, Israel in Bondage

by J. H. Ingraham

The events which have transpired since I last wrote to you, mock my pen by their sublimity and infinite grandeur. Upon a rock for a tablet, the desert around me, the Sea of Edom before me, I desire to record, while they are vivid in my memory, the stupendous scenes of the past six days. The millions of Israel have come forth out of Egypt! The Sea of Suphim is between them and the land of their bondage! But I have so much to write, such wonders to relate, that I will not anticipate your curiosity, but proceed to send you a narrative of each event in due order. Let all the earth say that the Lord God of the Hebrews is the only God: besides Him there is no God!

The day that Moses and Aaron departed from the presence of Pharaoh-Thothmeses, in truth to see his face no more, the Lord commanded them to call together the elders and people of the Hebrews, and instruct them to take a male lamb, or a kid without blemish, one to each household, keep it till the fourteenth day of the month, which day was just at hand, and kill it on the evening thereof, sprinkling, with a bunch of hyssop, the lintel and door-posts of their houses dipped in its blood, and roasting the flesh, eat it at night, leaving none until morning. "And ye shall eat it," said the Lord, "in haste, with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; for it is the Lord's passover, who will the same night pass through the land of Egypt, and smite all the first-born of the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment! I am the Lord: and this day shall be a memorial to you forever."

Then Moses did as the Lord commanded. Moreover on the day of the night on which the lamb, that had been selected from the flocks three days before, was to be slain, he said to the elders of Israel, whom he called, together, "Thus saith the Lord your God, 'Let none of you go out at the door of his house until the morning; for this night the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side-posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.'" There were also other ordinances of bread unleavened established, which bread they were commanded to eat for seven days, at the "feast of unleavened bread."

And when Moses had proclaimed these and other ordinances, the people bowed their heads and worshipped God, and said they would do all that the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron to say unto them.

Then, my dear father, followed a scene of the deepest interest! It was three millions of people preparing to break their bondage of generations, and to go forth from under the cruel sceptre of the king of Egypt forever. The mighty miracles of Moses had, long since, silenced the murmurs and doubts of the elders, openly uttered at the beginning, when Pharaoh in revenge against Moses and Aaron, increased their burdens, and denied them straw for their bricks. At each successive miracle they had gained confidence in their powerful advocate before Pharaoh; and when they saw that he could not be equalled by the magicians, they became vain and proud of him, whom before they had condemned; and waited, with wonder and expectation, their mighty deliverence. At the occurrence of the sixth miracle they threw up all work, and no Egyptian had the heart to say, "Go to your tasks!" for they saw that God was with them. Thus from all parts of Egypt, drawn by curiosity, hope, wonder, and a desire to behold this mighty leader whom God had raised up, they flocked to Goshen, until the land was filled with their vast numbers! The houses and huts could not contain them, and they slept by thousands in the fields, and by the wayside. When they perceived that the darkness, and the locusts, and the hail approached not their land, the most timid and desponding took courage, and lifted their voices to the God of their fathers, in hope and gratitude. Indeed, after the awful plague of darkness, thousands of the most ignorant Hebrews shouted that he was a god, and the Egyptians of all classes were ready to acknowledge him as Osiris or Thoth! And in some of the temples, the day after the darkness passed, the priests waved incense to Osiris by the name of Musæusiris, or Osiris-Moses: and, I doubt not, divine honors will be paid him in Egypt for generations to come! Yet this mighty servant of God moves among the people, as unassuming and self-forgetful as the humblest of his brethren, quietly giving his directions for the greatest movement earth was ever to behold—a nation marching in one day from bondage to freedom!

I moved in and out, everywhere among them. There was a strange joy lighting up every face. Old men looked calm and happy; young men were noisy with hope; maidens were full of joy; mothers smiled with delight, as they clasped their babes to their bosoms, in the certainty that they would not grow up in servitude to Pharaoh. All eyes were turned to Moses and Aaron, as they passed to and fro, and many fell on their knees, and worshipped them; while others shouted, as the only way they could express their emotions. How must the heart of the servant of God have swelled with gratitude to his Creator, as he beheld the happiness around him! And how deeply he must have realized his responsibility, as he reflected that the hopes of three millions of people, whom he had assembled in Goshen, with the promise of deliverance from the sceptre of Pharaoh, hung upon his single arm, but which was, for the time, the arm of God!

With what emotions of awe and expectation did the children of Israel, each at the door of his house, prepare to slay the chosen lamb, and sprinkle its blood on the side-posts and lintel! To them it was the command of Moses simply, and beyond that none knew the significance. It was a beautiful and serene evening. The sun had filled the skies with golden atoms, and the horizon was tinged with commingled emerald, blue, and orange colors, fused into an atmosphere of ineffable glory. It seemed as if the presence of the God of the Hebrews was in His skies, beholding His people! At the given hour, being the ninth of the day, a hundred thousand sacrificial knives—held in the hands of the men of a whole nation, which became, for the moment, a nation of priests to God—flashed in the sun, and the blood of the victims, pouring upon the land of Goshen, consecrated it as the altar where the God of the Hebrews first received the national worship of His people, and their recognition of Him as their God.

Then, with hyssop dipped in a basin of the blood, each man sprinkled the door-posts, and cross-piece of the entrance of his house, in behalf of all who either should dwell in it, or who, being stranger-brethren, came from other parts of Egypt, and could enter no house for the throngs, yet were numbered with some one household: as, for instance, the house of Aaron's father-in-law, which could hold but thirty people, had on its list three hundred and seventy names, as its household,—all brethren from other provinces; for Goshen was now like a mighty camp. There were besides, hovering about the confines of Goshen, and even mingling with the Hebrews, thousands of Egyptian families, who, flying from the terror of the Lord in Egypt, had sought safety near the Hebrews, and under the wing of the God who had protected them,—hoping to share their safety. Many of these brought their substance with them—their rich apparel, their gold, and jewels, and silver—hoping, therewith, to purchase the favor of their once despised, and now dreaded, bondmen.

How, my dear father, shall I record the events of the night that followed the death of the lambs! As the sun went down, the Hebrews, with awe, retired within their dwellings, and closed the doors. Mothers, with anxious haste, drew in their first-born. Even many of the hapless Egyptians, who had heard of the command to the Hebrews, chose a lamb and slew it—their hands trembling, and hearts sinking between hope and fear—and sprinkled the door-posts of their wretched places of shelter, if, peradventure, the great and terrible God of the Hebrews would, in the coming night of His vengeance upon Pharaoh, seeing the blood, pass them by, and spare their first-born also.

At length a silence, like that which forever reigns in the heart of the pyramids, reigned throughout Goshen. Not an eye was closed in all Israel, during those first hours of dread watching for the first sound abroad of God's coming down upon Egypt. I remained up, in the house of the venerable Aminadab, the father-in-law of Aaron. Elisiba, the wife of Aaron, with her arm around her eldest son Nadab, a fine young man, held him firmly by her side. Aaron and Moses were apart, in a room by themselves, engaged in low conversation, or in solemn prayer. No other sound was heard, but the voice of this wonderful man talking, as if face to face with his God.