heed your true calling
dare to walk your sacred path
find courage through faith
Every year around this time, the ABC network in the United States airs The Ten Commandments. Cecile B. DeMille’s 1956 classic tells a story that moves beyond the biblical account to focus on Moses.
He presents the story of the exodus as Moses’ hero’s journey.
Weaved throughout the story are reminders that the Hero’s Journey is rife with inner conflict.
Here are 5 elements of the inner conflict faced on the Hero’s Journey, as presented in the movie:
(1) Certainty vs Faith
The Hero is driven the the certainty of his calling, yet must navigate alone through an uncertain “wilderness” as part of his journey. It is faith that carries him through.
Before going to join the Hebrews to learn of his lineage, Moses tells Bithia, the mother who raised him
I do not know what power shapes my way, but my feet are set upon a road that I must follow.
Later, as he is exiled to the desert, the narrator comments about the uncertainty of the path
He is driven forward, always forward, by a god unknown, toward a land unseen…
Each night brings the black embrace of loneliness. In the mocking whisper of the wind, he hears the echoing voices of the dark. His tortured mind wondering if they call the memory of past triumphs, or wail foreboding of disasters yet to come, or whether the desert’s hot breath has melted his reason into madness.
(2) Identity vs Imposter
Moses is both secure in his identity and yet feels like an imposter in his calling.
When Moses learns he was born to a “Hebrew” woman and not to the Egyptian Queen Bithia, he is steadfast that his identity is not determined by his biology.
What change is there in me? Egyptian or Hebrew, I am still Moses. These are the same hands, the same arms, the same face that were mine a moment ago.
As people around him recognize him as the deliverer, he brushes them off.
Later, at the burning bush, he questions God’s choice of him as the messenger who will help liberate the Hebrew’s from slavery.
Who am I to lead the people?
(3) Drive vs Surrender
A few lines of the voiceover during Moses’ wandering through the desert capture both the drive and surrender needed on the Hero’s Journey
He is driven onward through the burning crucible of desert, where holy men and prophets are cleansed and purged for God’s great purpose, until at last, at the end of human strength, beaten into the dust from which he came, the metal is ready for the Maker’s hand.
(4) Solo vs Supported
The narration during Moses’ exile in the wilderness speaks to the solo nature of the Hero’s Journey. Moses has been stripped of everything at this point.
Into the blistering wilderness of Shur, the man who walked with kings…now walks alone.
And yet he is not alone.
A greater force sustains him as he wanders the wilderness.
Just when he is at his lowest, Jethro’s daughters find him and give him water and food.
Jethro welcomes Moses to his family and gives him a job.
(5) What You Own vs What You Embody
As Moses embarks on his journey through the desert, he is stripped of his material possessions.
Torn from the pinnacle of royal power; stripped of all rank and earthly wealth; a forsaken man without a country, without a hope; his soul in turmoil like the hot winds and raging sands that lash him with the fury of a taskmaster’s whip.
Later, he tries to rebuff Jethro’s offer to join his camp, under the theory that he has nothing to give.
Jethro corrects Moses, observing that
You have wisdom. You need nothing more.
It reminds us that what we embody is the greatest asset of all.
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