Netflix’s New Docuseries on Moses Highlights His Inner Life, Struggles With Obeying God’s Commands

Another curious decision on the part of the storytellers is that God not only repeatedly tells Moses, “I am who I am,” but he also several times tells Moses, “I am the destroyer,” and even makes that statement to Pharaoh, foreshadowing the final plague, the death of the firstborn. 

Even though the docuseries follows events until shortly after Moses receives the 10 Commandments on Mount Sinai, the story notably leaves out the part of the account of the golden calf where Moses calls for all who are on God’s side to come to him and then tells the each of those who respond (the Levites) to kill “his brother and friend and neighbor,” resulting in the deaths of 3,000 people. In fact, in the series, Moses actually prevents the killing of two men who incited the creation of the golden calf; as he does so, Moses tells the Israelites that it is against God’s law to murder.

However, Christian viewers might be intrigued to learn how people from the Jewish and Muslim faiths perceive the story of Moses. And it is not as though the docuseries avoids asking difficult questions, such as, what are we to think of the fact that God is responsible for the deaths of all of the firstborn Egyptians? And how do we understand the fact that he drowns the Egyptian army in the sea? 

‘Story of Moses’ Focuses on His Humanity

This willingness to explore challenging parts of Moses’ journey with God is also part of the show’s success at depicting the characters’ humanity. Moses is so disturbed by the grief of the Egyptians as their firstborn children die that he runs into the street and asks his wife, Zipporah, “What have we done?” She replies, “What God asked you to do.” Later, Pharaoh tells Moses, “Your God is nothing but a murderer.”

RELATED: ‘Reacher’ Star Defends Christianity Against Satanist Who Claims ‘Your God Is Evil’

Throughout the series, Moses struggles with the fact that early in his life he killed an Egyptian. Exodus 2:11-12 says:

One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

The docuseries portrays the Egyptian complying with Moses’ command to stop beating the Israelite, and Moses subsequently killing the Egyptian in a fit of rage after the man turns his back on him. This murder haunts Moses after he leaves Egypt to live in Midian and contributes to his sense of unworthiness as being the person to lead God’s people into freedom. 

When Moses arrives in Midian, he hides the fact that he lived as Egyptian royalty and the fact that he murdered a man. Identity is another area where Moses struggles throughout the docuseries, which portrays him as being unaware that he is a Hebrew until he returns to Egypt in obedience to God’s call. Up to that point, he has simply felt that he does not fit in with the Egyptians and also does not feel fully comfortable in Midian even after he starts his family there.