From the big stage to the big screen, Moses is a spectacular, insightful entertainment experience for the whole family! Not only are audiences taken into this amazing production by sight and sound but by insight into important, spiritual lessons.
This spectacle on stage and film shows how the unlikely hero Moses drifts as a baby in a little ark and wanders in the wilderness before God calls him into action. Audiences journey with Moses from amazing events at the Nile River to the Red Sea before he leads God’s people toward the Promised Land. Moses’ life is revealed in the Old Testament books of Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
According to the Hebrew and Christian Bibles, Moses was adopted by an Egyptian princess, and later in life became the leader of the Israelites and their lawgiver. The authorship of the Torah is attributed to “Moses our Teacher”, who is the most important prophet in Judaism.
As proposed by historians and depicted in this production, Thutmose II (1493 or 1492 to 1479 BC) was the pharaoh during the life of Moses. Thutmose II may be best qualified to be the pharaoh of Exodus because he had a brief, prosperous reign with no son to succeed him. His widow Hatshepsut then became first Regent (for Thutmose III) then Pharaoh in her own right. Thutmose II’s mummy evidently display cysts, possible evidence of plagues which spread through the Egyptian and Hittite Empires at that time.
Baby Moses is pulled from his basket in the water. Photo Courtesy Sight and Sound Theaters
God chose Moses, who was born about 1500 BC to lead Israel out of slavery and to give them God’s laws. When the Book of Exodus begins, the Hebrews were living in Egypt and after time they grew in number and the new Pharaoh, who did not remember Joseph, and put them into slavery. Because the Hebrew slaves had been reproducing so fast, the king felt threatened by a potential revolt against his authority and gave orders that no more male Hebrew children should be allowed to live. Moses’ mother saved him as an infant and put him in a little arkl of papyrus waterproofed with asphalt and pitch, which she floated among the reeds on the bank of the Nile River.
By God’s providence, Moses, who was the child of a Hebrew slave, was found and adopted by the daughter of the Pharaoh himself. Reared in the royal court as a prince of the Egyptians, “… Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds” (Acts 7:22). At the same time the Lord enabled Moses to be taught in his earliest years by his own mother. Therefore, he was founded in the faith of his fathers, although he was reared as an Egyptian (Exodus 2:1-10).
Sonoma Christian Home has the opportunity to speak with Katie Miller for Sight & Sound’s Moses. As Corporate Communications Manager, Katie Miller works with the Leadership Team, Management Teams and individual departments within the Lancaster and Branson locations to bring synergy, cohesion and direction to internal and external communications.
As the oldest grandchild of Sight & Sound’s founders, Katie was the first member of the family’s third generation to officially work within the organization. She stepped onto the stage when she was two years old and performed as part of the cast until she was 13. Her unique, rich perspective into the company’s formative years has been leveraged in everything from publicity opportunities to future succession planning. (See Dr. Howard’s interview with Katie for Sight & Sound’s spectacular Jonah.
SCH Editor at Large Dr. Diane Howard and Katie Miller reflect on some of the valuable, profound insights that come from this fabulous production of Moses.
SCH: What new insights do we learn about Moses in this production?
KM: We can put Biblical heroes and heroines on pedestals, forgetting God uses ordinary people like us. The heart of this production is to take the hero of Moses off the mountain to remember that he was an ordinary man and a reluctant hero.
SCH: What do we learn about the sovereignty of God?
KM: We learn that God is relentless in pursuing Moses, Israel, and us. He pursues them and us to reveal that He is the great I Am, their and our everything, that they and we might have a relationship with Him.
SCH: What do we learn about God’s timing.
KM: We learn that God’s timing is never ours. When Moses left Egypt and was there in the wilderness for 40 years, he thought his life was all but over, but it wasn’t. God’s timing is better than ours.
SCH: How does this production point the way to Christ?
KM: The production points the way to Jesus as the Passover lamb. The story of Moses and the Israelites all lead ultimately to Jesus Christ.
The spectacular story of Moses comes to theaters and stage this September! Photo Courtesy Sight and Sound Theaters
SCH: What do we learn about the history of Egypt?
KM: Moses’ Egyptian mother in the production is Hatshepsut, who became first Regent (for Thutmose III) then Pharaoh in her own right. There is historical evidence for this. It was an amazing historical period.
SCH: How did God prepare Moses to lead the Israelites?
KM: God knew that Moses needed to learn that He is the great I AM. Once Moses and we learn who God is, we can then learn who we are.
SCH: What is surprising about the God’s choice of Moses as a leader?
KM: What is surprising about God’s choices is that He chooses those we least expect.
SCH: What is surprising about the Hebrews as followers of Moses?
KM: Like Moses, they are flawed. We see ourselves in them. Like them, we trust then doubt; but God is patient, kind, and loving. He wants us to know Him in a deeper way.
Pharaoh in the Sight and Sound Theaters production of ‘Moses.’ Photo Courtesy Sight and Sound Theaters
Educated in a high civilization, Moses was trained for high office, or even the throne of Egypt. Familiar with life and grandeur at Pharaoh’s courts, as well as with Egyptian religious worship, he was taught in the writing and literary ideas of the time. Because he knew of Egyptian administration of justice, when he killed and buried an Egyptian taskmaster who was beating a Hebrew slave, Moses fled from Egypt at 40 years old. In the desert land of Midian. There he married a daughter of Jethro and agreed to tend Jethro’s flocks.
After another 40 years, God spoke to Moses from a bush that was on fire but not consumed. God sent Moses back to Egypt to lead the Hebrews out of slavery into the land promised to Abraham. God demonstrated His power to Moses and revealed to Him His holy Name, which was “YHVH” or “Yaweh.”
The tremendous responsibility of Moses’s task, his difficulty with speaking, and his sense of inadequacy made Moses hesitant and unconfident to do what God was calling him to do. God assigned and anointed Aaron to go with Moses to be the spokesman. Together they persuaded the Israelites to follow them, but Pharaoh would not let them go. God then sent 10 devastating plagues on the Egyptians. The last plague was the death of the firstborn in every home whose doors were not marked with blood.
Moses and the burning bush on stage. Photo Courtesy Sight and Sound Theaters
God also commanded the people of Israel to celebrate yearly the “Passover” to commemorate when the angel of death passed over the houses that had the blood of a lamb. (Exodus 12:1-14)
Pharaoh finally gave in and agreed to let Israel go, along with the wealth of Egypt. However, as soon as they left, Pharaoh changed his mind and sent his army after them where Israel was up against the Red Sea. However, God parted the waters and led them through on dry ground. (Exodus 14:21-22) But the waters then closed in on Pharaoh’s armies. (Exodus 14:28-29)
Moses was now the leader of a motley, undisciplined collection of slaves, Hebrew as well as non-Hebrew, escaping from Egyptian territory toward freedom. Through forty years in the wilderness of Sinai, with many obstacles to surmount and many miracles happening along the way, Moses led the horde of former slaves, shaping them into a nation.
Moses’ first 40 years in Pharaoh’s court prepared him to lead. His second 40 years gave him knowledge of the desert through which he and the Israelites would travel. Moses was fully prepared for God’s mission at the age of 80.
Miriam in ‘Moses’ on stage this September. Photo Courtesy Sight and Sound Theaters
The life of Moses and what God did through him has had profound impact around the world to this day. Interestingly, in America on July 4, 1776, immediately after the Declaration of Independence was officially passed, the Continental Congress asked John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin to design a seal with a symbol for the new United States. They chose as a symbol, Moses leading the Israelites to freedom and the Founding Fathers of the United States inscribed the words of Moses on the Liberty Bell: “Proclaim Liberty thro’ all the Land to all the Inhabitants thereof.”
Upon the death of George Washington in 1799, two-thirds of the eulogies for him referred to him as “America’s Moses.” One said that “Washington has been the same to us as Moses was to the Children of Israel.”
Harriet Tubman, African American abolitionist, who was born into slavery but escaped to rescue approximately seventy enslaved people, was also called the Moses of her people.
Filmed in front of a live audience at Sight & Sound Theatres, Moses is an original stage production that has enraptured nearly 2 million people. Individuals and families can go deep and wide into this epic Bible story come to life in movie theaters for two days only: Thursday, September 13th and Saturday, September 15th.
To learn more about this author, please visit Dr. Diane Howard
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