Mixed Reviews

While the film took artistic license with details, it was both historical and biblical in its thrust.

The film offered fresh, even revelatory insight into the biblical narrative itself. By fictionally relating Moses and Ramses as “stepbrothers” who loved and enjoyed each other, the filmmakers conveyed the deep love God has for all people, even those considered his enemies. For536870912when Moses returned to Pharaoh, entreating him to let God’s people go, it was not merely an adversarial relationship, but one in which the love of God was longingly extended.

It was a piercing reminder that God’s word must be tendered to others with all the grace, hope and love with which he gives it to us.

The biblical narrative is theocentric--focused on God. Hollywood narratives are usually anthropocentric--focused on the human hero. “The Prince of Egypt” highlights God’s story less than the evolution of Moses’ character into the sober leader of the Hebrews. But one cannot escape the presence of God in the narrative. We are invited to see the grand design from “heaven’s eyes” even as we stay with the mud, straw, bricks and sand of Egypt and Midian.

The correlation between the opening prayer, “Deliver Us,” and the inspired song, “When You Believe,” connects God’s people with his righteous actions. He is not merely a presence, but a person. God is there, and he is not silent or passive.

But neither does he speak much, in contrast to the story in Exodus. Yet he is represented as the Lord God, who sees the oppression of his people, hears their groans, is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness and truth, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin, yet by no means leaves the guilty unpunished. Such a God hovers over the narrative and works through his servant Moses.

Only where the film deviates from the known sacred text should concerns be raised. For example, in the scene in which Moses flees to the desert after murdering an Egyptian overseer, the Bible shows him doing so out of fear of being discovered. The film implies a different motivation--to “find himself.”

Also, in the Scriptures, Moses rarely does anything without the personal help of God and those whom God sends. Unskilled in public oratory, Moses must depend upon Aaron for confrontations with Pharaoh; with all too real humility, he also keeps asking God, “Why didst thou ever send me?”

The movie is an inspiring, heroic, epic film; yet anyone on his or her own pilgrimage out of a personal Egypt should be reminded of the temptations, trials and tribulations that follow once536870914you step across the Red Sea.