MOSES ON THE MOUNTAIN

About the Book

    "I'm through with Egyptian ways."  The words are spoken

fiercely.  "I'm no longer an Egyptian.  I'm now a Sand Crosser."

    The speaker is Moses, a stranger in the Sinai Wilderness.  

Behind him is another life.  He has been an Egyptian prince.  But

now he is nobody.  An exile from his homeland, wanted for murder,

his true family origins revealed to him as a son of slaves, he

accepts his new life.  He becomes a Sand Crosser, the name of the

desert nomads who are scorned by Egyptians as barbarians with

sand beneath his toes.

    He finds refuge in the tents of Jethro, priest of Midian.  

With kindly affection the old patriarch adopts him as a son, gives

him his oldest daughter in marriage, and makes plans for Moses to

succeed him as priest of the clan.  Moses finds peace in the tents

of the Sand Crossers. Egypt is far away.  His wife Zipporah gives

him love and companionship, and together they begin a family.

    Moses learns to love the desert where he has found peace.  

From his brother-in-law Hobab he learns some of the secrets of

this fierce land: how to sweeten water with the branch of a

certain shrub; the mysterious "stick snake" which can be made to

look like a staff; how to find pockets of water in the

porous limestone rock; where the migrating quails land to rest,

and the tamerisk tree which sheds its sweet bread during the

night.    

    Moses' greatest struggle however is not with the desert but

with himself. In the wilderness he comes face to face with God.

    His father-in-law Jethro speaks profound words: "There are

two kinds of men who cross the sand.  One walks with his head

down.  He sees the desert.  The other walks with his head up.  He

sees God."

    Moses has been trained in Egypt.  Educated as a scientist, he

observes reality, seeking explanations in nature and logic.  He

has rejected all religions as superstitions.  And then he climbs

The Mountain, where God confronts him.    

    The Mountain is Mount Sinai, the impressive monolith where

time seems to stand still and a person enters a different

dimension.  God speaks to him from a burning bush.  He even tells

Moses his name: Yahweh, the great I AM.

    This mystical experience changes his life.  Although he still

walks the desert with his head down, seeing natural explanations

for all the desert's mysteries, he can also walk the wilderness

with his head up, seeing God's miraculous hand in these same

strange phenomena.      

    Then a man comes from Egypt claiming to be Aaron, his blood

brother.  A new pharaoh sits on the throne; the Israelites are

feeling his heavy hand.  They need leadership, and they believe

God has ordained Moses to be their leader.

    Moses accepts his new vocation.  He leaves his sheep and the

peace of his desert home to return to Egypt to be the Shepherd of

Israel.

    In Egypt he meets his true family and the "sheep" of his new

flock.  He and Aaron confront the pharaoh with God's demand: "Let

my people go!"  Pharaoh Ramses is young, intelligent and ruthless.  

His vanity is legendary.  Engaged in a battle of wits with Moses,

he completely fails to see that he is really in an unwinnable

contest with God.    

Calamities descend upon Egypt: polluted waters, dead frogs,

gnats, disease.  A severe thunderst

About the Author

James R. Shott is a Presbyterian minister who took early retirement in 1980 to become a writer. Sixteen of his novels have been published, translated into other languages, won awards, and published in large print. Other publications: short stories, magazine articles, poems, and newspaper columns. Most people call him “Jim.” Three women call him “Dad.” Seven young adults call him “Granddad.” One two-year-old calls him “Great-granddad.” His wife, to whom he has been married for well over a century, calls him—well, never mind.