Here we will call the attention of the reader to the resemblance between Moses and the still more ancient Egyptian Mises, or Bacchus. It is so striking, that we can not resist the conviction that they were originally closely connected with each other. 1. Bacchus, like Moses, was born in Egypt. 2. Bacchus, or Mises, was also exposed to danger on the River Nile, like Moses. 3. Bacchus lived on a mountain in Arabia called Nisas; Moses sojourned on Mount Sinai in Arabia. 4. Bacchus passed through the Red Sea dry-shod with a multitude of men, women,, and children, as Moses is represented as doing. 5. Bacchus likewise parted the waters of the River Orontes, as Moses did those of Jordan. 6. Bacchus commanded the sun to stand still, as Moses' friend Joshua did. 7. Bacchus, with his wand, caused a spring of wine to spring from the earth, as Moses did a spring of water to flow from a rock with the "rod of God," or "the rod of divination." 8. Mises, like Moses, also engraved his laws on tables of stone. 9. Both have been represented in pictures with rays coming out of their heads, indicative of the light of the sun. Thus, it will be observed, the resemblance runs through nearly the whole line of their history. That Bacchus figured in history anterior to the time of Moses, no person versed in Oriental history can doubt,—a fact which impels us to the conclusion that the two stories got mixed before the history of Moses was written! There is one important chapter in the practical life of Moses we can not omit to notice before we close his history, as it furnishes a still fuller illustration of his character. We allude to his deliverance of "the Lord's holy people" from Egyptian bondage. Several of the incidents in this narrative are incredibly absurd; and some of them of such demoralizing tendency, that it becomes the duty of the moralist to expose them to view. The conduct of his God Jehovah toward the King of Egypt in this case is so repulsive and unjust, that it must call forth the condemnation of every honest-minded reader possessing a true sense of justice.
1. We are told that Jehovah, through Moses, frequently ordered Pharaoh to let his people go, and then as often hardened his heart that he should not let them go; and finally punished him with death because he was unwilling to let them go.
It would certainly be difficult to discover any sense or any justice or any consistency in such conduct.
2. It looks like not only a strange kind of justice, but monstrous injustice, for Jehovah or any God to kill a man for doing what he had purposely compelled him to do. Live frogs, lice, flies, blood, vengeance, and death were poured out upon the king and his subjects, ostensibly for the purpose of compelling him to liberate the Jewish nation; and yet it was morally impossible for him to do so, because the same Jehovah had planted in his mind the determination not to let them go.
3. When Moses spake to Pharaoh in the name of Jehovah to release the Israelites, the king asked, "Who is the Lord [thy Lord] that I should obey his voice?" Here let it be borne in mind that different nations had their own Gods. And Moses' God is here the same itinerant being who had been rambling about among the bushes, hunting his lost child (Adam), eating griddle-cakes with Abraham, wrestling all night with Jacob, getting whipped in a fight with the Canaanites, &c. Pharaoh was therefore justified in calling for his credentials.
4. In nearly all the contests between Jehovah and other Gods, their power is fully admitted; and their success was only secondary to that of the God of Israel. The question was not, Shall Jehovah succeed, and other Gods fail? but, Shall Jehovah be awarded the first prize in the contest, and his name stand at the top of the list?
5. There are many texts in the Bible which go to show that Jehovah was jealous of other Gods, and perpetually in fear of being outgeneraled by them. "Ye shall know that I am the Lord," was the constant burden of his song. In the case before us he is represented as saying to Pharaoh, "In this thou shalt know that I am the Lord" (Exod. vii. 17). "It is true you have a God, and he is very smart and powerful; but he can't come up to me."
6. Jehovah seems to have been actuated by an aspiration for fame and power, as well as by a sympathy for his people in this contest with Pharaoh; for he is represented as saying, "I will get me honor upon Pharaoh and his host" (Exod. xiv. 17). Here seems to be displayed a spirit of vanity, and a thirst for glory,—the aspiration of vain rulers and petty tyrants.
7. The magicians kept up with Moses' God in the performance of miracles till it came to making lice: here they failed. We might conjecture it was because all the dust had been already converted into lice by Jehovah, were it not that they had previously converted the water into blood just after Jehovah had performed that miracle, and left not a pint to drink.
8. In the achievement of all the ten prodigies, there is no intimation but that the heathen magicians performed the miracles in the same manner that Moses did, and with equal success in most cases and in all the most difficult ones; thus leaving Jehovah no laurels worth boasting of.