The Prince of Egypt

Growing up I watched the animated movie “The Prince of Egypt” more times then I can ever count. It is the story of Moses freeing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. The youth group recently watched the film in two sittings and had conversations about how we can relate the life and struggles of Moses. It also perfectly coincided with our Sunday School curriculum. I have not seen the movie in over a decade, but as we watched it I was struck by the many truths in the movie. Watching the movie as a child, there were good and bad characters, and the movie was a simple story of good vs. evil and God winning. As an adult I empathized with Moses as he struggled when God called him back to Egypt. A part of his life that he had tried to burry and forget. I saw Aaron, Moses’ own brother shun Moses. I saw the pharaoh genuinely scared about disappointing his dead father and failing at his responsibility. The whole story became so complicated as I watched it as an adult; it was no longer simple. It made me long for the days when I was a child, when the world was simple. The movie also encouraged me to trust God as I did when I was a child. To trust that there is good and evil in the world, but that He is at work and will bring His people to the Promised Land. I feel many of us fall into the anxiety and fear that comes from the complexity of life. It is not something that can be ignored, but God calls us to trust that He has our best interests at heart. When Moses was trying to free the Israelites, there was a period when things got much worse for them before it got better. They hated that Moses had come and made their lives harder, even though he had come to free them by God’s own directive. I walked away from the movie and conversation with the students with a desire to trust God more. Even when life seems to get hard, and people are upset, I want to trust that God is at work to bring His people home. As we enter Holy Week remember that God has been working out his plan to bring together His family since before Moses, and the climax of His plan was Jesus. Through Jesus God will bring His people together and usher them into the Promised Land. I encourage you to trust Him and get excited about the Promised Land we are being invited into. Jacob Bancroft