The Prince of Egypt

This is possibly going to be a weird post lol.

One of Benjamin's new favourite films is The Prince of Egypt, which I got him for his birthday. It's taken him a little while to get into it, but he loves it now, especially the part at the beginning with the baby. It's funny actually, because the part he likes most is where Pharaoh's wife ignores her little toddler boy who is asking her to pick him up because she's so in love with the new baby she found floating in the river... interesting. I wonder how much he understands- I remember learning at uni that fairy tales are therapeutic because they help children, who cannot easily express or even understand their environment, subconsciously interpret their world.

Interesting, but not the point of this post!

The film is based on the book of Exodus: the story of Moses. Some of the plot is fictional, but I think it is very cleverly done and since we've been watching it every couple of days for a couple of weeks now, I've been over-analysing, like I do. Nothing like a cartoon to get you thinking about the scriptures in real terms :)

Just one of the things I've been thinking about....

Because he was afraid that the Israelites were getting too numerous and might rise against him, Pharaoh ordered that all male babies that were born to Israelite women should be thrown into the river. Oh. My. Goodness! I had read that so many times and thought, 'Well that's not very nice', but when I was sitting there with a baby in my arms and I saw them taking the boys and the women crying, it came to life to me. They actually took newborn sons from their mother, never to be seen again. And those poor women knew that their children would be killed, and there was nothing they could do about it. That is horrific! Just imagine someone walking into my home and picking up Benjamin and saying, 'Oh, you had a boy, sorry', and taking him. I cannot believe that someone would do that.

Also, imagine the guards that had to do it: listening to the women screaming, hearing the babies cry for their mothers, then watching them sink down into the river spluttering for life. Sorry to be so graphic, but it is horrendous! This actually happened.

I've thought before about how hard it would have been for the Israelites to leave their home and follow Moses, who they barely knew except as the son of a tyrant. But then add to that the fact that his adopted father committed such a atrocity and it becomes even more of a matter of faith.

Like I said, nothing like a cartoon to bring the scriptures to life!