Moses at the Sea

Moses, Moses, what were you thinking?
The people trusted you to lead them out to freedom,
And instead you've led them to a place of death.
On one side the Sea of Reeds
And on the other the armies of Pharaoh whose heart is like a stone.
You cannot see them yet,
But the very earth trembles beneath the pounding of the horse's hooves.
Do you remember when you were one of them?
When the daughter of the former king drew you from the River Nile,
And raised you as her own?
But little did she guess that your mother and your sister would be near
Whispering of your linage and the ties of blood
That bind you to this people, now four hundred years enslaved.

Moses, Moses, the armies of the Pharaoh are drawing near.
They are so close you now can hear the war cries of their charioteers.
This people, these former slaves, are not fighters.
They will be mown down like wheat ready for the harvest.
They know this is a trap, and their courage flees.
That old man standing in the path of your nervous pacing,
He shakes his fist at you and cries out:
"Are there no graves in Egypt that you marched us to this wretched wilderness
To meet our deaths?"

Moses, Moses, remember how you killed a man? An Egyptian
Who was flogging one of these slaves. Remember the fear that seized you?
How you fled to a far country to forget and be forgotten?
Many years journeyed past you in that country, far from the courts of Egypt.
You almost managed to forget until you came upon that bush that burned
But was not consumed. A divine fire, a fire that ignited your soul,
A fire like the fiery column that led you to this very spot.
So, Moses! Stand up like a man. Take up your staff and face the sea.
Stretch it out over the waters; put aside your doubts
And let your inner flame grow into a storm of fire.

Moses held his staff out over the waters of the sea
And a strong east wind began to blow.
The people felt it on their faces
The smell of it was something clean and new:
It was the wind of freedom,
It was the breath of life.

The waters of the sea parted
And the people passed through to the other side
But the Egyptians were delayed by mists and confusion,
And when they tried to follow after the people
They became mired in the sand.

When the last of the people had crossed over with Moses,
He again stretched out his staff over the sea,
And the pent up waters rushed back overwhelming the Egyptians.
Then the people sang a hymn of thanksgiving to God for their deliverance,
But God wept for his children, the Egyptians, who were drowned
In the midst of the sea.