Moses, Man of the Mountain (14 page)

T
herefore Moses took his rod in his hand and went to see Pharaoh. He took Aaron along for his dressing. It looked better to the people anyway for Aaron to go. Suspicion was too easy to arouse if Moses went alone. Some would think he had only stirred them up in order to betray them to Pharaoh. He had heard hints and whispers that maybe he was buying his way back in with Pharaoh by stirring them up to show what was in them so Pharaoh could have an excuse to butcher them all. Pharaoh had done everything else that could be done. Nothing else for him to do but kill them and they didn’t put that past him for a minute. Anyway, Moses had reason to believe that few if any accepted the story of his kinship with Miriam and Aaron. He was still an Egyptian noble to them. If he wanted to cast in his lot with them, well and good. But blood was thicker than missionary zeal and he would bear watching. Why should he serve them anyway? It looked mighty funny when you come to think of it, at that.

Now Moses was at the palace with Aaron.

Pharaoh took his seat and had his Queen with him so that Moses could see that she was the Ethiopian Princess who had once been his wife away back there when he was a Prince in Egypt and wore a jewelled sword at his side. Moses could see that it was supposed to hurt him and he was sorry for them a
little. She had been all these years living off of more treaty kisses and Pharaoh had been living off the power, when he had gotten hold of it at last. Moses could picture just how fretful Ta-Phar and his wife had been while they waited for Rameses the Great to die. Moses could see Ta-Phar’s old face slipping down into his neck. His Queen’s hips looked like they had moved round in front of her, or more like they had abdicated in favor of her stomach. No, he still didn’t care, no matter how much he saw that they wished he would. He stood with his rod in his hand and measured them. He stood before Pharaoh and felt as if he stood in the presence of the evil dead. And he was glad that he stood facing them at last. The past and the future were pouring out of time.

Pharaoh let Aaron stand before him and say what Moses had told him to say. He listened to the end, but he paid little attention to the ex-slave who he saw was quaking inside while he tried to put on a show of arrogance. At the same time Pharaoh kept looking to Moses for confirmation and assurance. So he listened casually to the voice of Aaron. But he paid strict attention to Moses. When Aaron had finished he ignored him and acted just as if Moses had spoken directly.

“Well, Moses, so you are back again doing your best to destroy the country.”

“No, I leave that job to you. I am here by divine command to save a people, not to destroy.”

“Oh, yes, I know. You are bent on being King of something, even if it is nothing but the Hebrews.”

“No, Pharaoh, my call is higher than that. I am commanded to lead them out of their suffering to something better. And I’m going to carry them off.”

Pharaoh laughed without moving his features. But Moses could see the formal set of his expression change to scornful banter. “And how do you aim to do that, Moses? Those Hebrews are mighty poor fighting material, and you ought to know what my army is.”

“You have your army and I have my powers. I mean to attack you with what I have. Our side is stronger than yours.”

“Since when?”

“Since a new and a stronger god has called them through me to his service. Your gods never were anything more than a dedication of the forty-two judges of the forty-two Names of Egypt, and they are still servants to be ordered. The god I represent is one who commands. We shall win.”

“With what?”

“With my uplifted right hand. If you can stand that, you can stand the flood.”

Pharaoh indulged in a broad sneer. “Oh, you are still messing around with hoodoo, eh? You ought to know better than to come back here depending on that.”

“And why not, Pharaoh?”

“You forget, Moses, that the priests of Pharaoh are the greatest priests on earth.”

“I don’t forget any such a thing, because I never knew it. I do remember though that I could surpass any priest in Egypt long before I left here.”

“That’s rich! First you come here pretending that you can’t talk—bringing a slave to do your talking. Then you open your mouth in the wrong place. I’m going to call your bluff so these Hebrews can see what a friend they are trusting. And then I’m going to show you up for the pleasure of the thing.”

“You mean we are going to show each other up. You fear me more than I do you and with good reason, too.”

“Moses, I could call the palace guard and have you dead in a few minutes. I am going to do something worse. I am going to expose you first and then leave you to the people.” He turned to a guard. “Call the priests from the temple. I want them here right now.”

While they waited Ta-Phar smiled at Moses with utter cruelty in his face.

“You see, Moses, I know why you have come back to Egypt and it is not to rescue these miserable Hebrews. You are merely trying to use them to frighten Egypt into making you a King. I’m glad that you have come in the way you did. I intend to keep you at your activities so that Egypt can see you
as the country’s worst enemy—trying to arouse the slaves against the people.”

“To me, Ta-Phar, the Hebrews are people.”

“To me, Moses, slaves are slaves.”

Moses could see Aaron wilting and he could see Pharaoh gloating at the sight. The priests came in, never missing a convention sacred nor civil until Pharaoh told them to rise and listen to what he had to say.

“This fraud and hypocrite was run out of Egypt around thirty years ago, after trying to be a priest, a soldier and a Prince, and first one thing and another. Now he’s back trying to tote off our slaves on some religious cock and bull story. He claims he has enough magic in his right hand to outdo all my army and all my priests and the Hebrews are stupid enough to believe him, it seems. Go ahead with your skill and make a fool of him so the people can go on back to work and he can go on back wherever he has been hiding out all these years.”

The chief priest bowed and announced the marvelous feat of turning their rods into snakes and back again.

Moses said, “Excuse me, Pharaoh, but I don’t believe I want to be bothered with such children’s foolishness. I won’t work on that trick at all. Let Aaron do it. I’ll wait till they do something worth noticing.”

“Oh, you won’t get out of it that easy,” Pharaoh sneered. “Go ahead, men, and make him show you. We’ll give him something to do besides brag on himself.”

So the priests manipulated their rods and danced and finally threw them down on the floor before Pharaoh and they began to writhe and crawl. Pharaoh looked triumphantly at Moses. But Moses was looking all around the throne room in unconcern. So Pharaoh sent him a challenging snort. Moses merely handed his rod to Aaron and said, “Throw the rod down, Aaron, if that is the only thing that will pacify Pharaoh. Throw it down and get back out of the way.”

Aaron dropped the rod of Moses to the floor with a “plop” and stepped back. The rod of Moses came alive. Its head darted out and seized the snake nearest it and swallowed it.
The next one and the next one was run down and disappeared head first down the throat of Moses’ living rod.

“Is that all you got to show me?” Moses asked casually.

“Show him something else!” Pharaoh ordered angrily.

“Er—er—Pharaoh, we didn’t prepare anything more for right now, but if you have him back here later on we’ll guarantee to show him.”

“Oh, I’ll have him back here and you are going to show him,” Pharaoh retorted.

“Well, let me know when you get ready,” Moses said. “And if that is all for right now, Aaron, go pick up that rod and show it to Pharaoh.”

Aaron picked up the rod and found it a budding stick. So he showed it to Pharaoh and the priests and the sight of it made their eyes pop.

“You see what power I got behind me, Pharaoh. Will you let my people go?” Moses asked earnestly.

“No! I got work for those Hebrews to do, and they are going to do it, too.”

“But the god of the mountain told me to tell you to let them go regardless.”

“Moses, do you think you can come back here and scare me with a jumped-up tale about a mountain god and a few tricks and make me change my plans?”

“Pharaoh, do you think you can holler loud enough to break into a god’s arrangements?
Will you let those Hebrews go?
”

“No! I won’t.”

“I see you call yourself a hooking-bull at the landing. You don’t aim to let nothing pass.”

“That’s right, Moses. And certainly I won’t let those Hebrews go.”

“You’re right sure about that, I take it?”

“Just as sure as you snore.”

“One of us is bound to be wrong because I am just as sure that you will.”

“The will of a Pharaoh and the might of Egypt says I won’t.”

“Somebody is lying and I know it’s not me. I bid you a pleasant evening.”

Moses left the palace but the news of what had happened in the palace was spreading over the city of ear. Egyptians collected in little knots and talked. The story of the rod that was a snake, and a budding bough became a legend overnight. People recalled the glory of Moses as a soldier and waited to catch glimpses of him on the streets.

But the court and the people of wealth sneered at his ambitions.

“So he is going to carry off our slaves by hoodoo, is he? Well, well, well! Pharaoh knows what to do with men like him. He is playing with that Moses like a cat with a mouse. When he is tired of the game he’ll clamp down on him like a trap.”

“I don’t believe that snake story, but it is funny, isn’t it? What would slaves want to be free for anyway? They are being fed and taken care of. What more could they want? I am off for a little trip down the Nile; let me know when Pharaoh closes in on Moses. I want to be in at the death.”

Moses was satisfied so long as the people talked. For what he had to do concerned all Egypt and not just Pharaoh alone.

G
oshen was a land of moving feet. Feet, torchlights and whispers. The news of what went on that day in the palace was traveling. Shadowy figures spoke out of darkened doors. Messages were sent by smoke and fire.

That was the work of Moses’ helpers. Moses himself sat in his house and planned with Aaron and others.

“You got Pharaoh on a wonder, all right,” Aaron gloated. “Reckon he won’t switch around by tomorrow and let us go?”

“I hope not,” Moses answered earnestly. “That would ruin us.”

“How come, Moses? I thought that was what we was working after.”

“It is, but I hope he don’t give in right away.”

“Why? It would save us a heap of work and worry.”

“No, it wouldn’t either. That would be the best way to beat us. You see, Aaron, we have come and demanded the people in the name of a god that neither Pharaoh nor the Hebrews ever heard about before. He has got to prove himself before them all to make folks believe. They have heard of God by ear but they don’t know. If they went out from Egypt before I showed them signs and wonders it wouldn’t be a week before they would be building altars to Egyptian gods. So what would be a better chance to show his powers than for Pharaoh to
refuse and for me to beat him down with powers? That’s what I aim to do. I don’t want his consent, really. It would spoil everything I planned. I mean to whip his head to the ground and then lead out with a high hand.”

“So that’s why you talked to him so biggity like you did, eh?”

“That’s just why I did. I know I got the power to bring him low. So the more he rears and pitches the more the people will believe when I whip him down. It ain’t just to get you all out of Egypt, it’s to make something out of you afterwards. That’s the main idea. If Pharaoh lets the Hebrews go peaceably it won’t be six months before they will be back here ready to serve him again. If I’m to make a nation of you, you’ve got to be cut loose forever.”

“I guess you know your business, Moses, but it seems like if we was to present a petition to Pharaoh, now that we got him worried—”

“I see you don’t know people, Aaron. Pharaoh is not worried at all. He’s not taking this serious yet, but he will when he has to. Now let’s get back to our next visit to Pharaoh. One week from today we’re going to call on him again. By that time his priests will have something ready that they think I can’t do. He’ll be glad to see me about that time.”

“What we going to do next time?”

“Oh, that is all according to how I feel that day. Nothing too important. I’m saving the best for the last. Aaron, that’s about all for now.”

Aaron went on out with the other heads of the tribes and Moses was glad to be alone. He went and sat in the door and studied the night. Timid crowds collected at a little distance and watched him. He paid no attention to them really for his heart was in Midian, and his thoughts were walking the road in that direction. Jethro his father and friend. Zipporah and the numerous comforts and pleasures that flowed from her. His sons that were young men now and just as puzzling to him as young men have always been to their parents. The whispering crowds studying him from dark doorways were not on his
mind nor heart. Nothing in Egypt was close to him. They could keep their distance forever.

But one person was bold enough to break in on his reverie. A curly headed boy in his mid-teens came up and stood smiling timidly at Moses.

“Hello,” Moses said. “And what do they call you around the house?”

“Joshua. I live down the road there a piece. I expect you know who my papa is. He’s always at the meetings. His name is Nun. Sort of bushy black beard and all.”

“Oh, yes, so you are the son of Nun.”

“Yep. I want to work for you.”

“Oh, you do, do you? And why do you want to work for me?”

“Because you are great—greatest man that ever lived, I think, and then besides that I like you.”

“Why, Joshua?”

“Oh, just ’cause, I reckon. I wish I was big and strong like you and I wish I was brave and great and I just like to be around you, that’s all.”

“That is a searching speech you made, Joshua, and I think we ought to clinch it in some way. We ought to do something so folks will know we are friends. What would you suggest?”

“I reckon I’m sort of big for it, but I think a neck-hug would be just fine.”

“That was just what I was going to say. Come on!”

Joshua jumped forward and flung himself on Moses’ neck and the leader of men clasped the boy to him until it hurt. Moses thought of his own sons back home and he thought of this welcome bit of warmth in Egypt.

“Joshua, you are the first person to come to me since I started out on this mission that didn’t want something for himself.”

“Oh, yes, I do. I want something too.” Moses’ arms relaxed and his face fell.

“Well, what is it that you want, Joshua—a high office for your papa if we succeed?”

“No, I want to be the one to wait on you right now.”

Moses’ arm tightened about him again. “You are the first to offer me your services, and I am going to remember it. Go get your things and come sleep in this house right away.”

“Oh, I couldn’t do that. Miss Miriam might not like it. She don’t like many things that go on, you know.”

“You leave Miss Miriam to me, Joshua. Go get your things and move in on us. I can use you.”

Joshua bolted off like a roebuck and Moses sighed happily, “God even found me in Egypt. If I make no mistake, there’s a real man in that boy.”