I watched Prince of Egypt just now...
The movie itself obviously doesn't follow the Bible perfectly (Moses is age 80 by the time he led the Israelites out of Egypt, as well as he does not call the pharaoh brother). I was watching the part where the Israelites came out of Egypt, with There Can be Miracles as overarching music. It's indeed a powerful sequence, even for an animation movie. Also in the end when God parted the Red Sea and how God delivered them from the Egyptian pursuit --- God was powerfully at work, and His action demanded faith from the Exodus generation. Yet, I can't help but think of part 2 of their life...
Of all the happy faces depicted in movie coming out of Egypt, only the children --- the Wilderness generation --- were able to enter the Promise Land. When Moses and the Israelite came to the outskirt of the Promise Land they sent spies to scout out the land. The Canaanites were powerful, strong, wealthy --- seemingly impossible to defeat. So the scouts came back and reported. Almost all of them thought it is impossible for the Israelites to conquer the land, and reported so. Only TWO of them --- Caleb and Joshua --- remained in faith, and urged the people to take hold of what God has promised them. If there is an animation for this part, I can picture the Israelite leaders convening, listening to the spies, many are discouraged at the news the spies bring. And in comes Caleb and Joshua, intensely, declares that God has given them the land, implores their people to take hold of God's promise, to the point that they their clothes were torn. And you can hear "There Can Be Miracle, When You Believe"..a rallying cry that the animation would surely use. And in the perfect Hollywood script, the people will rally around Caleb and Joshua's cry, enter the promise land with God behind them, and take the land that God promised.
...yet their people decides to refuse God's promise. They refuse to take the step of faith, in stark contrast with the scenes depicted in Prince of Egypt, where the Hebrews started their journey towards the Promise Land. And because the Exodus generation refused to receive the promise, they stayed in the wilderness for 40 years --- until all of them died in the desert. God gave the promise land to their children -- after all, their children didn't make their decisions. It was their children who decided to take on the promise of God, and they entered the promise land -- the ones who grew up in the wilderness, many of them born in the wilderness.
It is impossible to not note, that the generation who saw God work mightily --- the plagues, the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire, the parting of the Red Sea --- were also the ones who lost faith and decided to not take the promise that was theirs. If they can lose faith, then losing faith is game for all of us. It is not surprising that the authors of Hebrews used the Exodus generation, ancestors of their intended audience(writing to the Hebrews) to implore them to encourage each other to not lose faith. Let us also do that to each other, because there are times when the going gets tough, and we all wonder is God really there. So let us encourage each other to not lose faith, and in turn lose the blessing that God has in store for us =)
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Aaah! I'm reading Exodus right now, and have been wanting to rewatch that movie ever since. Waiting for finals to be over. =) It's soooo good... my bro and I have an inside joke about "Playing with the Big Boys Now." Hahaha.