SWNOVELS Chapter 9: Moses
IT HAS BEEN SOME TIME SINCE MOSES FLED. I, TOO, was asked to leave the palace to keep an eye on him by his adopted mother. With the desert so vast and dry, there is no telling what will happened to him. Ramesses’s father has passed away, and he sits in the throne now as the Pharaoh of Egypt.
Now a shepherd in Midian, Moses has a family of his own. But it is clear what troubles him. After thirty years have passed, it was time to make myself known to my student.
“Never have I seen you so down on yourself, Moses,” I say to the man tending his sheep.
He looks up and says, “Jacob?!” Moses runs up to me and gives me a hug. “What are you doing here?”
“I’ve been here for quite some time, like you,” I continue. “Keeping my distance.”
He looks down and away towards the dirt. “I hope you weren’t followed; I never should have killed that man.”
“Moses, you were a young man back then, and you felt that you were justified for what that man was doing to your people,” I say.
“But I did not do anything for my people though,” he argues.
It was clear that he is down about the whole situation. The part that I have to remind myself is, right now, I know that he is the chosen one. So long as he finds out the truth on his own, the Hebrews will be saved. The last thing I need to do is encourage him to go do something reckless.
It seems like he felt terrible about what he had done those three decades ago. But if he hadn’t then we wouldn’t have made it to this point. Chances are he would still be in the palace, serving as Ramesses’s guard, and not serving God.
“Moses, you have to look past what has happened and be happy that Jethro took you in.”
Moses looks down from Horeb, the mountain we are on, and can see his family enjoying life. A smile appears on his face, and he says, “I really do have a grand life here.”
“Yes, Moses, you do. You really do,” I continue. “It is time to pray Moses.”
“Pray?”
“Yes, Pray to God, the creator. Then just listen for His answer.”
Moses closes his eyes, drops to his knees, and begins to pray, “Father, forgive me. I am but a lost soul and beg for you to help me. I am your servant.”
In the distant clouds begin to form and move in, thunder rolling like God is bowling. The dark night becomes a blackened night. Flashes of light from the clouds graze the desert. I notice a tumbleweed rolling into view, from the wind. The tumbleweed stops in front of where Moses was praying. He was utterly oblivious to what is going on around him. The tumbleweed engulfed in flames and the little burning bush began to speak. “Moses!” the bush says.
“Yes?” Moses replies, with his eyes closed.
“Open your eyes, Moses.”
Moses opens his eyes to see the burning bush in front of him. The bush is burning bright but is not emitting any heat. Startled, he asks, “Are you real?”
The fire burns so bright that it blinds both Moses and me. “I am!” the voice calls out. “I am the great I Am. The God of your father, and his father. The God of Abraham and Isaac.”
“What do you want from me?” Moses asks, shielding his eyes from the fire, afraid to look at God.
The fire grows more intent, causing God to appear in the flame. A lightning bolt strikes down, causing Moses to jump back in panic. I jump from the loud clap.
“I want you to free your people, to free my people. I hear their cries in their prayers, asking for help. They are crying for freedom,” God says.
Confused I witness Moses approach the burning bush and say, “You must have mistaken me for someone else. Is this message for Jacob or me?” He continues, “How can I set them free? I have no power in Egypt anymore.”
The flame grows high, so high that it can be seen for miles. The fire grows so large that God envelopes Moses in the blaze. Moses is looking around his body, and the flame is going inside of him, giving him a new power. A power that he never knew could exist. A strength that makes me as weak as Ramesses.
Moses says, “I’ll do it, Lord.” Moses squeezes his hands, “Who shall I say sent me?”
In the flame Moses nods his head, looking up at the sky. He hears the answer God gives him and the fire is gone. The bush that did not burn blows away in the wind. The clouds move on.
“Lord,” he says in awe. “I will set Your people free.”
Moses looks around and at all his sheep. He then runs down the mountain, letting his sheep go free, symbolizing what he will do to the Hebrews in Egypt.
Moses introduces me to his family, “Jacob, this is my wife, Zipporah. My sons Gershom and Eliezer.”
“Very nice to meet all of you.”
“It is nice to meet you as well,” Zipporah says with a smile.
“Zipporah, Jacob and I must go to Egypt. We must free God’s people from being slaves,” Moses explains to his wife.
“Why are you forced to leave your family, our family to save slaves?”
“For two reasons, one because God told me. But also, because they are my people as well.”
“If God told you to go, you must go,” Zipporah gives him a kiss and sends us away. “Take care of him, Jacob.”
“I think he’s going to be the one taking care of me this time,” I say with a smile.
Moses smiles while I pat his back. Moses and I left for the long journey in the desert. I could feel the worry coming off of him, as we rode the camels into Egypt. He hadn’t been there in over thirty years. Because he did not leave for good reasons.
As we were riding through the desert, completely silent, I felt like I needed to break the silence.
“Moses, I am proud of you for doing this. There is something to be said to be willing to just up and leave your family for something God tells you to do. Especially when you are returning to the home that you were raised. Bethiah will be surprised to see you, Ramesses will be surprised, not to mention all of your people. None of them know you. I wouldn’t be surprised if your family recognizes you, even after all these years.”
Moses looks at me with a blank look on his face. “Please stop talking.”
Realizing that my open thoughts were not welcomed, I did as he asks. It is not my favorite thing to do, but if it makes this little trip more comfortable for him, I will do as requested.
The pyramids were coming into view, and we could feel the tension rising.
“We’re almost home, Jacob.”
It was strange, I do not feel welcome as we were riding in. The village where Moses was born, has quadrupled in size. They still have nothing but tents, but Moses’s task is enormous. There are men, teenagers, children, all doing the works of the Pharaoh. “My poor people.”
I was beginning to worry about how he was going to handle everything. With so many people that were suffering. Several children are laying in the sad, crying for water. Seeing the men and teenagers, moving slabs of concrete, are just skin and bones. It is a sad sight to behold. It makes me one to do an infomercial to get people to send money.
Upon arrival at the Egyptian Palace, three tremendous guards greet us. “Stop!” we stop. “What is your business here?”
A very muscular Moses says, “I wish to speak to Ramesses.”
“You will address him as Pharaoh!” he is corrected. “Only royalty can call him by his first name.”
Moses leans down from the camel. “Let him know that Moses is here.”
The guard’s eyes grow wide. He must have been a boy when Moses was here. The guard runs away to inform the Pharaoh.
“So much suffering, Jacob,” Moses says to me while we wait. Looking around at all the slaves working hard for an ounce of peace. But they know that if they leave, they could be killed.
“Get out of the way!” an angry man says, pushing Moses.
A slave master raises his whip to hit the man that pushed Moses. But I catch the whip before hitting the slave. “He didn’t mean anything by it,” I said.
The slave master gets off his concrete pillar and walks to us. “You dare to defy me?”
“Not at all, I just don’t think that beating him will help you any.”
The man does a deep sigh, angry. He spits on the ground in front of me and storms away.
The guard from before returns. “Are you Prince Moses?”
“Not anymore, but yes.”
“He has requested that you come back in the morning. There is much to discuss.”
“Thank you for your time,” Moses says.
Together we make our way to the village. There we are greeted by hundreds of people with their hands lifted towards us. They are chanting in a language that Moses does not understand. But I do. They are all chanting, “Yeshua! Yeshua!” over and over again.
Moses looks at me and asks, “What are they saying?”
“Yeshua, it means savior,” I reply.
“Savior? I’m not a savior.”
“No? Tell them that,” I say with a smile. But our great welcome is soon disrupted by one of the village elders.
“Why have you returned?” he says, looking at Moses and me.
“Excuse me?” Moses asks in confusion.
“You may have grown up a prince, but I know you heard me,” the man says in disgust.
“Moses, would you like me to handle him?” I ask.
“No, thank you, Jacob, I can take care of myself,” Moses declares. “I have come to set my people free, to set God’s people free.”
The crowd goes crazy. The man looks around in shock that everyone believes Moses.
“Stop!” he says.
“This man abandoned you when you were all children. None of you remember because Ramesses won’t allow it! You will see, he will not get far in the palace. We’re not going anywhere.”
“Ira, shut your face!” says another elder. “Whether or not he left when we needed him the most. We need him now, and God has provided as we all have prayed!”
“But why now, Aaron? Why after three decades has he returned?!” Ira fights.
“Because He has told me to,” Moses replies, calmly.
“Oh yeah? Which he?” Ira mocks.
“He is God. God sent me to speak with you. To speak with all of you. Do you not remember who the God of your ancestors? The Creator?” All of the crowd got quiet, it was clear that they thought I was joking at first and the Yeshua was to mock Moses. But what Moses was saying caught their attention. “Fear not, God has not forgotten you.”
“Pharaoh is the only god we have to fear right now,” Ira declares.
“Did Pharaoh create the heavens and the earth?” Moses argues. “Did Pharaoh create any of you?” Ira tries to fight back, but Moses continues, “Or was it God?!”
In the distance, a woman emerges from a tent. She was about his age, maybe a little older, but looks like him.
“But why you? What makes you think that Ramesses will even talk to you?” another man asks.
Moses smiles at the man. “Do not worry about that, he will want to talk to me. And he will listen to what I have to say.”
“Joshua, this man has come to help us,” Aaron says. “I have had a dream that he would come. God told me that He has heard our prayers and that he will send someone with the power to free all of us!”
The woman that was at the back walks forward. She squints her eyes as she moves towards us, slowly. Moses kept his eyes locked on the woman making her way to him. “Moses?” the woman says.
Aaron looks up at Moses and smiles in aww. Aaron and the woman make their way to him and greet him. The two of them wrap their arms around Moses and say, “Welcome home brother. This is your sister Miriam, she looked after you as a baby until you got old enough to walk. I am Aaron, we are blood.”
Moses smiles at the two embracing him. “My family, I am home!” Moses begins to cry with happiness. I keep a watchful eye on the rest of the village to see if anyone will challenge this. But it is quiet.
The next morning, we do as we were asked by the Pharaoh and went before Ramesses. Walking into the palace brought back some memories of living a life of royalty. The smell of roses fills our nose. We walk proudly past the guards, not worrying about anything. We both knew that if anyone tried something, I would step in. Moses and I are the best two fighters in all the land. Moses walks through the hallowed corridor, towards the throne room, smiling and nodding his head at the guards we are passing.
We enter the throne room with pride on our chests. We see an enormous throne, more prominent than the one that God sits on. Next to the throne is an identical, smaller one. Ramesses sits in his large chair with his son in the smaller one. The two looks like they could be clones, they look so much alike.
“I see you have a son, now,” Moses says, breaking the silence. Anyone else would have been hit in the back with staff, forcing him to bow before the king. But Moses holds a form of respect in the palace walls.
“I do. My family’s legacy will never die.”
Moses smiles at the boy, who looks away. I couldn’t help but notice the scar on Ramesses’ face. The reminder that they were boys once.
“Why have you come, Moses?” Ramesses asks, mindlessly stroking his scar that Moses provided so many years ago. “You’ve come to ask back into the palace?”
The guards grip their swords, ready to pounce if Moses says something disrespectful.
“I have come to talk to you, Ramesses,” Moses says.
“To tell me that I need to forgive you?”
“That is not necessary, God has forgiven me. He has saved me,” Moses says. “He has saved me for a great cause, too.”
“God? What God? I am the god here.”
“The God of Abraham… He sent me.”
“What for?”
“To demand that you let my people go.”
Ramesses stands from his throne and says, “Demand?” He inched his way to Moses. The Pharaoh stares at Moses with an evil eye. Doing my best to hold back from getting involved, Moses locks his eyes on Pharaoh. If it weren’t for Moses’s upbringing, he would have been killed.
“Let my people go, Ramesses,” Moses says in an authoritative tone.
“You still do not know when you are defeated.”
Without hesitation, “That is because you have yet to defeat me.” Moses continues, “I promise you Ramesses if you do not let my people go; God will provide punishment more severe than you can ever comprehend.”
“Don’t make me punch you, Moses,” Ramesses threatens. “I am wise enough to know that you, adopted nephew, do not fight fair. You kill one of my people, run away like a coward, and now you are here to threaten me? Go ahead, let us see if your invisible god will do anything to me.”
“Do not test the Lord.”
Ramesses looks at two of the guards and says, “It is time to show these men, where they belong.”
The two guards walk up and grip our necks. While Moses and I receive a punishment, Ramesses is watching the horrific scene. But Pharaoh is trying to show his son the way a Pharaoh is to rule.
“Your god is dead!” Ramesses yells. “I. Am. God!!!”
“No, Ramesses,” Moses says as he catches a fist before his face. “You are just a scared little man. You will set my people free, or God will show no mercy.”
Ramesses walks up to Moses and shoves his foot into Moses’s face, knocking him out. The thud from his hard-hit echoes through the throne room like a drum being hit.
I pick up Moses and walk back to our camels, where we go back to the village.
“What happened?!” Miriam asks, running to the camel.
“He said no,” I say light-heartedly.
“Great, now Pharaoh is angry and will take it out on all of us,” Ira complains.
A few hours have passed, and Moses finally wakes up with me by his side. “Moses, I am glad you’re alright,” I tell him.
“Thank you, Jacob, I was not expecting that, that is for sure,” Moses says. “This may be a little harder than I thought. Of course, I will have you to help me. Right?”
“Of course I will.”
Almost a week goes by, and Moses, Miriam, and I take a walk by the Nile River. Accompanying us is Aaron and Ira. I get the feeling that Moses will be put to his first test, any moment. We all know that Moses has made Ramesses upset, but God made sure that nothing worse happened. Moses could have been killed for standing up to him. “Jacob, when will God show himself to the people?” Moses asks me.
“God’s plan is God’s plan, not your plan, remember that,” I tried to explain. “God loves you, He loves all of you. But God will show himself when He feels ready.”
“I understand, but…” Moses is interrupted.
“Moses, the Pharaoh is very upset!” Ira tells Moses. “Because of you, we are all going to be punished! Leave him alone.”
“I’m sorry, Ira, I cannot leave him alone.”
“But if you do not, I will have to intervene.”
“Have you ever wondered what if God is not helping is because you refuse to believe?”
Ira looks down and depressed. He knew that he crossed the line. Moses, on the other hand, looks up at the sky. I try to see what he is looking at. While I could not understand what he was looking at, a conversation in his mind was happening.
“Thank you, Father,” Moses says. He looks at Aaron and Miriam. “Brother, sister, I have heard from God. He will make Pharaoh free us. If Pharaoh chooses to not listen, God will free us by force.”
“This is why we are together, a family.”
“What does God want us to do?” Miriam asks Moses.
“Trust in Him. He will provide the way,” Moses responds.
I walk to the edge of the water and notice something off in the distance. What I see is a naked Ramesses in the water. He is swimming in the area that is blocked off to visitors. This must be the high bathing area that Moses was floating down so long before. “Moses, Ramesses is right down the stream,” I tell him.
Aaron tries to lean over to see the Pharaoh without being spotted. While leaning over, his staff touches the water. With the step into the water, the river starts to change color. A thick, almost purple tinted, red starts flow. The river is no longer flowing calmly but turns into a viscous fluid. The first curse was evident; the water has changed to blood.
Ramesses, swimming downstream, is enjoying the cool liquid against his body. We continued to watch to see what happens to him, the god of Egypt.
The bathers begin screaming at the site of Ramesses standing up, out of the water, and is covered in blood. Ramesses looks down is shocked by what has happened. He screams out, “Rinse me off!” One of the servants takes a bucket of water that she must have pulled before he entered the water. She dumps it on him but is shocked when the water is also blood. Ramesses stands there with a look of annoyance. “Towel!”
Aaron watches in surprise and says, “Did God make this happen?”
Nodding his head, he says, “Why do you doubt the Creator?”
“From this day forward,” Miriam says, “we are no longer servants of the Pharaoh. We are servants of the highest God.”
“God is with us, forever, and always,” Moses says.
“So, now we can go, right?” Ira says.
Moses looks at Pharaoh with an unsteady look. “Unfortunately,” Moses says, “it is going to take a lot more than that, I fear.”
“What do you mean?” asks Aaron.
“God is sending ten plagues to change Pharaoh’s mind,” I say. “Be ready, he will not go down easy.”
Before Ramesses gets too far away, Moses yells out, “Let my people go!”
Ramesses ignores him and retreats to his palace.
The next morning Moses and I are in the throne room, once again. Moses breaks the silence and says, “Let me people go.”
“They are mine!” Ramesses says.
“Very well,” Moses and I turn around and head out the room.
We hear croaking from the palace begin to echo through the hallways. As we were walking out, all of the rooms were drenched in frogs.
Weeks go by, and nothing has changed with the Pharaoh’s decision. The slaves are becoming annoyed, not realizing that God has a plan. But we have to make sure that we stay strong. One night, I am greeted with a familiar face. A portal opens up and an angel steps out.
“Jacob?” he says.
“Azrael!” I say with excitement.
He comes to me and gives me a hug, in gratitude.
“What are you doing here?”
“God has sent me here to spread death in Egypt. Something about letting His people go?”
“Yes, but…” I am interrupted by Gabriel walking out of the portal next. “Welcome, Gabriel.”
“Thanks,” Gabriel says. The two of them are wearing the Amour of God, and they are ready for battle. However, I know that God has sent them here for specific reasons.
“How many plagues have happened?” Azrael asks me.
“Two. The bloody water and the frogs in the palace.”
“Yes, well next is going to be killing all of the livestock,” Azrael says. He turns around and vanishes as he walks away.
“If he does not let my people go, he will lose something close to him,” Moses says as he joins Gabriel and me.
“Do not be afraid, Moses…”
“Stop, nothing scares him. You don’t have to give him your, ‘I’m an angel of God,’ speech.”
“Quit making fun of me, Jacob!” Gabriel demands.
“I am sorry, what is it that you are doing here?”
“Tomorrow, you will visit Pharaoh. While you are there, I am to bring forth gnats,” Gabriel explains. “I will be in the shadows, but if Pharaoh denies the freedom, gnats are going to annoy all of the animals and people.”
The next morning, we went before the Pharaoh, again. “Let my people go!” Moses demands.
“Get out!” Pharaoh screams.
Gabriel, in the shadows, raises his hands to the sky. In the distance, a thick cloud of sand rushes towards Egypt. From a distance, it looks like another sandstorm, but it turns into gnats, just as he said.
The next day, the same situation came around, and it flew this time. Millions of biting flies have taken over the entire kingdom of Egypt. Meanwhile, the Pharaoh refuses to do anything to stop it. Regardless of how many times Moses tells him to let his people go.
The more that the Pharaoh ignores Moses, the more I must make sure that he does not become overconfident. I remember the young boy fighting Ramesses, giving him the small cut.
Moses and I walk to Pharaoh, once again to get denied one more time. It was beginning to become a routine.
“Let my people go,” Moses says.
“No!”
Just as before, Moses and I leave the palace to wait for whatever God has in store.
As Moses and I were leaving the kingdom, thousands of scorpions, spiders, snakes, and other very dangerous animals began to flood Egypt. Biting everyone in their path. “Why doesn’t he just let God’s people go?” Moses asks.
“Because Pharaoh does not want to admit defeat.”
“Well, we will try again.”
We waited a few days to pass before returning to the palace. We were hoping that in that time, Ramesses will have a change of heart. Once we returned, we can see all the people that were injured laying on the ground in pain. None of them were dead, but the painful screams can be heard all the way to the Nile. We approached the Pharaoh again, “Ramesses, my adopted uncle, when will you see that God will not stop?”
“I am god!”
In the corner, Moses and I can see Azrael standing in the shadows. “If you do not release my people, your people will starve.”
“I will tell you this again, no.”
I look at Azrael and nod my head. He turns around and shimmers away. This time, however, we do not leave, yet. We can hear, in the distance, animals screaming. Ramesses stands up and runs to a nearby window. What he can see is all the livestock that Ramesses had control over were dying. His prise horses fell. The camels and sheep collapsed. There aren’t any animal alive in site.
Ramesses turns to look at us and demands, “Stop this witchcraft!”
“Let my people go.”
“They belong to me!”
“As you wish,” Moses says. “Let’s go, Jacob.”
Aaron wanted to accompany us this time. He asks Moses, “What shall we do now?”
“We will take soot from a furnace and throw it into the air. The dust will cover the entire land, and the people of Egypt will begin to boil,” Moses says.
Aaron, on the way out of the palace, runs to a furnace. He grabs some soot and hands it to Moses. Once we are outside, Moses throws his hands into the air. A black cloud of dust left from his hands and started to slowly fall back down onto the city.
While the people of Egypt were suffering from all the boils, Moses, Aaron, and I are happy to return home. We take a fatted calf and give praises to God. We enjoy a massive feast. “The end is near brothers! I promise you! Soon, very soon, Pharaoh will release us, and we will be set free!”
“Then where will we go?” Ira asks.
“We will go to the land that God will provide. Just as Abraham did so many years ago,” Moses says.
“And if He does not provide?”
“Ira, what is your problem?” Aaron asks.
“This man shows up after forty years and expects us to trust him,” Ira says.
“I do not expect you to trust me, I expect you to trust God.”
Ira rolls his eyes and turns away. Moses, after the great feast, notices that the piece of wood that was holding the meat up was not burnt. It was still completely whole. Moses grabbed the piece of wood and used it as a walking staff.
We return, the three of us, with Moses in the lead with his new staff. Our presence is not as welcome as before, but Pharaoh continues to allow it.
“You come into my home, my kingdom, and hurt my people, my kingdom,” says Ramesses.
“I will say, again, let my people go.”
“Guards, I am getting tired of this same song and dance. Seize them!”
Six guards come to us and take the three of us by our arms. Last time they got the better of Moses and me, but this time we will not go down so quickly. Two guards lift Aaron up, easily. But the four guards surrounding Moses, and me, are not able to carry us.
The four of them attempt to lift us up, but it was like the weight of our bodies increased by ten, and the guards were unable to accomplish their goal. They began to try and just push us, but our feet were like magnets.
Nothing seemed to work. I ask Moses, “Are you getting bored?”
“Yes!”
We summon the strength to break them off of us. We both knew that it was not going to be an easy fight. Three guards attack. They’re good. But we are better. At least four times better. Moses lays one of the guards out flat. I decide to back off, for a moment, as this was Moses’s fight. He flips over the man on the floor and kicks a second guard. Knocking the second guard out cold. The third guard attacks the same way the others did. This time, however, Moses uses his staff in defense. As the guard swung with his sword, Moses blocked the sword with the staff. Back and forth they continued to fight with their weapons.
Before long the fourth guard decides that I was not fighting enough. He jumps and dives towards me. I back up, slightly, catch him by the neck and throw him onto the ground.
Moses is handling his staff very nicely. But before he can continue much further, he is interrupted by Pharaoh, “Enough!”
We all stop and look at Ramesses. “Let my people go,” Moses says once again.
“My answer is still, no.”
Moses and I adjust our clothes and leave once again, with Aaron limping behind us.
That night heavy thunder clouds came rolling in. The clouds glow bright orange and red. Lightning strikes down, to give a warning shot. But hail begins to fall almost right after. Mixed in the storm is tiny balls of fire, burning right through the straw roofs for some people in Egypt. However, the entire Hebrew village is not being touched.
While we all watched for the city to burn, it was a scary sight to see. I have never seen so much destruction over an entire kingdom. This was worse than Sodom.
The next morning, we tried again but was unable to be successful still. This brought the locusts. However, it did not affect Ramesses. The next day was another failure. Causing three days of complete darkness. Even the lamps would not light.
We waited the three days, to the dawn coming up. Azrael appears when the sun touches the village. “Welcome back, Azrael.”
“Thank you,” Azrael continues. “I have some news for you, for His people.”
“What news might this be?”
“This will be the tenth and final chance for him to let the Hebrews leave,” he says while I am looking at all of the people. “While you are away, tomorrow, asking Pharaoh to let your people go, the Hebrews must wipe the blood of a lamb on their doors. If the Pharaoh does not let His people go, I am to kill every firstborn child. Including animals, people, and even the Pharaoh’s son.”
“You are going to kill a child?”
“Just as Moses was almost killed. Just as the coming son of… sorry, I almost told you too much.”
“Azrael, I know that Jesus will eventually be born in a town of Bethlehem.”
“You have the gift of sight, too?”
“Yes,” I lied. I lied to an angel.
Azrael disappeared.
A couple of hours later, just like clockwork, Moses and I went on our journey to Egypt once more. Walking up to the gates, the Pharaoh is standing outside his palace doors. Almost like he does not want us to enter his home, not even for a moment.
“Ramesses,” Moses says.
“Jacob,” he responds, purposely ignoring Moses.
“Let my people go, Ramesses. This is your last chance!”
“Moses, my sisters adopted son. I have grown up with you, treated you like an equal. I have allowed you to enter my home, see my son, and not have to worry about anything. Yet you continue to come here and tell me to let ‘your’ people go. You claim that they are God’s people and should be set free to worship him in the forest. Well, as I have told you nine times before. NO,” Ramesses says. “No, Moses. Now leave.”
“Then I am sorry for your loss,” Moses and I leave a very confused Ramesses.
Later that evening, Azrael did as he said he would. He was flying over all of Egypt, killing off every firstborn male. Cows were dying, sheep, pigs, mice, and people. The cries in the night can be heard by the river. Azrael took form in the son of the Pharaoh’s room. There was something about this evening that gave me the ability to witness what Azrael was doing. Almost like, God gave me Azrael’s eyes for a moment.
Azrael approached the sleeping boy, holding a toy horse, cuddling into it. But Azrael began to pet the small child on the head. The life was being drawn from his body, and he drops his toy. The toy falling to the ground echoes through the palace. Loud enough that I almost can hear it with my ears of the flesh.
Ramesses’s son takes one final breath, and the tenth plague is complete.