Ethical Communication: Moral Stances in Human Dialogue

21. Moses: Deontological Norms

151 Moses Deontological Norms William Babcock It is typical to consider one of the Old Testament’s central characters , Moses, as the lawgiver who brought“God’s word,” the Ten Commandments or Decalogue, down from Mt. Sinai. Such a portrait of Moses as a duty-driven servant of God is accurate. However, it omits a key—if not the key—aspect of this biblical patriarch, and that is his humility, his meekness. To Mount Sinai “Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth” (Numbers 12:3). Meekness signifies the eclipse of moral selfhood, and accordingly leads to the full acknowledgment of the omnipotence of God. The more Moses subdued his own self, the more he was able to magnify God, speaking with authority like a servant repeating a master’s commands. As a young man, Moses’ people were servants of Pharaoh. By the time he left the Israelites, the “law of the land” was not an individual, but rather the Ten Commandments. Such a transfiguration would have been impossible had Moses not subjugated a concept of self to a higher power, the deity. As an infant Moses was protected from danger. When he was born a decree compelled the Hebrew people to cast every male child into the Nile. His mother made an ark of bulrushes or papyrus reeds, which she then made watertight with pitch, and hid it among the reeds by the river’s edge. Pharaoh’s daughter discovered the ark and adopted the child, educating him as an Egyptian. A power that was 21 152 . William Babcock then unknown to Moses had protected him, and reflecting on the experience, Moses saw how the hand of God had preserved him.1 By the time he was grown he had received a thorough training and apparent acceptance at the Egyptian court. However, he had also observed the increasing oppression of the Israelites. He subsequently became so angered by the cruel way the Israelites were treated that in his zeal for the welfare of his people he killed an Egyptian overseer. Pharaoh heard about it, forcing Moses to flee Egypt. Rebuked by his own conscience, Moses turned away from militancy as a means of working out the salvation of his race. Realizing that his indulgence in human will had been unsuccessful, he was ready to submit to the will of God, to listen for His voice, and to obey the deity. He lived in the desert as a shepherd and eventually married a daughter of Jethro, the man who gave him a home.2 After forty years the Bible recounts that God appeared to Moses when he saw a desert bush in flames but not being consumed. The burning bush led Moses to his reception of a divine message, and he was also informed that God was fully aware of the problems of his people and would end their Egyptian bondage, providing them with “a good land and a large nation” (Exodus 3:8). God instructed the patriarch by means of a rod that Moses carried, and when Moses obediently threw the rod on the ground it became a serpent. When Moses, at God’s command, grasped the serpent by the tail it again became a rod. And when he hid his hand in his robe and then took his hand out he found it covered with leprosy, but God showed him that it could swiftly be healed if he repeated the process. These and other signs eventually convinced the people of Moses’ authority. Moses continued to meekly hesitate accepting his task, claiming to be a poor speaker, but God reminded him that the deity would teach the patriarch what to say (Exodus 4:10–16). Moses understood God’s instruction asking him to return to Egypt to remind Pharaoh of the Lord’s demand to“let my people go, that they may serve me”(Exodus 7:16). Pharaoh refused, the Egyptians suffered ten plagues, and Pharaoh relented and let Moses lead the Israelites from Egypt. Pharaoh changed his mind, though, pursuing the Israelites to the Red Sea. The Israelites escaped to the desert and Pharaoh’s army drowned. Some 1.“Meekness and Might,” 175. 2. Ibid., 175. .   153 Moses three months later the Israelites reached Mt. Sinai, where Moses the leader became Moses the lawgiver. The Decalogue The Bible tells us that when Moses ascended Mt...