Episode:Melchizedek Gospel—Response Among the Hebrews (Part 2)
The beginning of the evolution of the Hebraic concepts and ideals of a Supreme Creator dates from the departure of the Semites from Egypt under that great leader, teacher, and organizer, Moses. This racially blended and versatile emancipator led his compatriots out of Egypt in a spectacular night flight. Their dash for liberty was carefully planned and skillfully executed, and the Mosaic teachings continue to influence our world even today.
Keywords: Urantia, Melchizedek of Salem, Moses, Exodus, Ten Commandments
Summary by Kermit
96:3. The Matchless Moses
The revelation presents Moses as the most important individual world teacher and leader during the period of almost two thousand years, between the incarnation of Machiventa and the bestowal of Michael. Our author paints a picture of Moses as an extraordinary combination of military leader, social organizer, and religious teacher. In Moses we find a prophet synchronized with the evolutionary process rather than an idealized picture of one who transcends the context of his time. It was an unusual versatility and adaptability, derived from Moses’ superior racial inheritance, that enabled him to manage that diversified horde, destined to become the Hebrews.
Concerning Moses’ progenitors, his mother was of the Egyptian royal family and his father was a Semitic liaison officer between the Egyptian authorities and the Bedouin captives. We were reminded that previously, the revelators regard Moses as Egyptian, numbering him among the four great Egyptian prophets over their six thousand year history, the other three being Amenemope, Okhban, and Ikhnaton. Moses in our revelation is portrayed significantly divergent from the Moses of the Hebrew scriptures. For example it simply would not do, for the emancipator of the Hebrews, to be portrayed as an Egyptian, thus disrupting the purity of the leadership lineage from Abraham, through to the kingdoms of Israel and King David.
It should be credited to Moses’ spiritual vision and idealistic nature that he chose to forsake the enticements of the Egyptian culture in favor of leading his father’s people out of slavery. These Bedouin captives hardly had a religion worthy of the name or a true concept of God. They are described as without hope in the world, a forlorn, downcast, dejected, and ignorant group of human beings, albeit possessed of latent genetic potentials for development. Some of their leaders were educated and Moses was able to coach them and assemble them into a corps of efficient organizers.
Moses sought to negotiate his peoples’ freedom, and with his brother had come to an agreement with Pharaoh. But Pharaoh reneged on his agreement whereupon Moses bided his time and made a spectacular night flight dash for liberty while the bulk of Pharaoh’s military was engaged, fending off attacks by the Libyans and Greeks. The revelation tells us that Pharaoh and a small band of Egyptians, in hot pursuit of the Bedouins all fell before the fugitives’ defense. An interesting note is that with these precise details disclosed in the revelation, we now have several anchor point facts with which to rework current understanding of history which could enable our scholars to derive a more accurate chronology of this entire period.
96:4. The Proclamation of Yahweh
It should be kept in mind that the elevation and evolution of Mosaic teaching influenced almost one half of the all the world, even down to the twentieth century. Moses was in a difficult position, comprehending the more advanced religious philosophy of the Egyptians, while the Bedouin slaves remained mostly ignorant of such things. But the volcano god of Mount Horeb, Yahweh they remembered.
Moses’ parents both communicated the teachings of Machiventa to him. The unusual union of Moses’ parents being of such divergent origins was due to their religious synchrony. The combination of Moses’ early education regarding El Shaddai and the later influence of his father-in-law, a worshiper of El Elyon, led Moses to formulate a new and enlarged concept of Deity, embodying all his former beliefs, which he wisely proclaimed to his people as an expanded concept of Yahweh. Embedded in this expanded concept of one God was the concept of Providence, material prosperity as a reward for serving God. This belief has found its way into current Christian beliefs.
Moses learned an important lesson in the teaching of truth. Because the Bedouins were so largely ignorant and unreceptive to the advanced truths of El Elyon, Melchizedek’s original concept of the one Supreme God, Moses wisely simplified his teaching, adopting their tribal god, Yahweh as their one and only god. This conscious compromise on Moses’ part was a continual predicament for him, trying to present his new and higher idea of Deity under the guise of the olden term Yahweh, ever symbolized by the golden calf. Note here that the Hebrews’ worship of the golden calf did not represent a so-called false god as scripture and Hollywood would have us believe, but simply the olden representation of Yahweh.
Following the flight from Egypt, the Hebrews tarried before the holy mountain of Sinai (Horeb), where Moses promulgated the ten commandments in the name of Yahweh, thus re-introducing the Dalamatian commandments of the deposed Planetary Prince. The fortuitous eruption of Horeb early in the Hebrews’ encampment there, enabled Moses to emphasize his teaching that their God was “mighty, terrible, a devouring fire, and all-powerful.” It should be noted that the Hebrews here consisted of the band of Bedouins led out of Egypt, plus various thousands of collateral descendants of Abraham who were gathered together during the sojourn in the desert.
It is most important to keep in mind that Moses deliberately chose to down step his advanced concepts of the one God to make them more palatable to his followers. He knew they would never fully comprehend the doctrine of El Elyon. He showed great foresight and pragmatism in understanding the limitation of his people and attempting to bring them forward gradually, avoiding the mistake of earlier teachers of attempting too much too fast. However, he also firmly harbored some problematic ideas e.g., his idea of Providence, which has come down to today with unfortunate consequences.
So it is that under Moses, Yahweh, the primitive tribal god of the desert was uplifted and evolved to become the Lord God of all peoples. We are told that this continuous evolution of the God concept from the primitive god of Mount Horeb to the high level of development depicted in the Deity doctrines of the Isaiahs is the most unique and amazing feature of the religious history of the Hebrews. For as we recall in the Levant, and Orient, the evolution of the Deity concepts failed to attain such personal levels, albeit they did reach elevated philosophical concepts unattained by the Hebrews because of their strong bond with anthropomorphic ideas of god.
96:5. The Teachings of Moses
Machiventa’s teachings to Abraham and his contemporaries, coming to Moses via the Kenite traditions enabled Moses to elevate the Egyptian mores and religious ideas, organizing them into the Hebrew ceremonial system of worship. As previously mentioned, Moses great challenge was to adapt his sublime concept of El Elyon, the Most High to the comprehension of the ignorant and illiterate Hebrews. The mercy of Yahweh, Moses feared to proclaim, in favor of the message of the stern law and harsh justice of God. He did teach them that they would indeed be the chosen people of God only on condition that they “kept all his commandments and obeyed all his statues.”
Moses shared enlarged and a more sublime vision of God with his leaders than he did with the rank and file followers. Upon his death these higher concepts were lost to view, while most people turned to the worship of their golden calves. Yet when Moses turned command of the Hebrews over to Joshua, he had whipped them into a self-sustaining and partially self-regulating nation of pastoral warriors.
