Truth and fiction can both be pretty strange

My morning readings this week have been in Exodus and if you are about my age you know that we grew up with this story imprinted on our little minds and hearts through the magic of Cecil B. DeMille, Hollywood and VistaVision by Technicolor.

I looked forward to this epic event every Easter season and would sit in rapt attention in front of our TV.

I knew everyone’s lines by heart and in my later years when I read the accounts of the Exodus in the book of Exodus, I took exception at times that the book didn’t follow the movie very well.

Silly me.

You know I jest, right?

The book is the true story and the movie took license liberally to fill in the details and attempt to make it even more entertaining, but honestly…it’s an amazing read all by itself in the black and white pages of my bible.

While there are additions that may or may not be true involving relationships and such, there is one part of the movie that did depict quite well the part where people like me get the willies because it involves snakes.

For reasons that I probably should study to learn more about God and who He is, but that for now just blow my mind; God had Moses use his shepherd’s staff in a rather unusual way.

As a sign of His divine power being vested into Moses, He has Moses throw the staff down and it turns into a snake.

Then He commands Moses to pick it up by the tail and (I’m sorry…just a second while I breathe slowly into a paper bag just thinking of this…) and it turns back into his staff.

Very cool.

Very convincing.

Until Moses is actually standing in front of Pharaoh and does this thing and the magicians around Pharaoh throw staffs down and voila….more snakes.

Ok, I may need another minute to gather my wits here…in case you haven’t figured it out…I get the heebie jeebies just saying or typing the word snake.

So anywho…as you know if you watched the movie and/or read the book…this is a bit alarming (and weird and odd and we might want to think twice about poo-poohing the powers of darkness, people) when Moses’ snake/staff slithers over and devours the fake/snake/staff’s and then Moses…oh my dear…my heart…bends down and picks this thing up by the tail and it is his staff again.

Whew…glad I am not having my blood pressure checked today.

As an added touch, in the movie version, the staff is also much bigger now. And I kind of like that and why not…it is now full of the other material it ate, so sure it would be bigger.

And in the following verse and throughout the rest of the plagues and such, Moses is always carrying that staff and using it to accomplish things and I wonder if the magicians were reminded every time they saw him coming that he had a power superior to theirs.

Interesting.

You know there is saying about walking softly and carrying a big stick.

You and I who have Christ in us, we have a big stick. We have a staff that has conquered death and overcome sin.

Just something to think about today <3

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