THE STORYTELLER'S BIBLE
Act I - The Pentateuch, Scene 9
Script by Bob Allen
For four voices

Scene 9

(THROUGHOUT THIS SCENE THE FOUR READERS REMAIN AS A GROUP AND WANDER RANDOMLY ABOUT THE STAGE.)

VOICE THREE:          The entire journey from Egypt to the Promised Land would have taken just a matter of days for a small band of men.   Even the vast multitude that escaped from slavery under the leadership of Moses should have been able to complete the trip in a few weeks.

VOICE FOUR:            Instead they spent forty years wandering…

VOICE TWO:             In the wilderness.

VOICE ONE:              Murmuring against Moses—

VOICE THREE:          The water is bitter.  We can’t drink this putrid stuff.

VOICE FOUR:            The Lord gave Moses a solution.  Cast a tree into the water and it will become sweet.

VOICE ONE:              Murmuring against God—

VOICE TWO:             There’s nothing to eat.  At least in Egypt we sat by the flesh pots and had our fill of bread.

VOICE FOUR:            The Lord gave Moses a solution.  Manna, bread from heaven, would appear every day and sustain them for forty years.

VOICE ONE:              Murmuring against Moses—

VOICE THREE:          You have brought us up out of Egypt to kill us.  Our children and our cattle are dying of thirst.

VOICE FOUR:            The Lord gave Moses a solution.  Smite the rock of Horeb and water will come forth.

VOICE ONE:              Murmuring against God—

VOICE TWO:             Is the Lord among us?  We can’t see Him, but we can sure see the Amalekite army advancing with swords and shields.

VOICE FOUR:            The Lord gave Moses a solution.  Hold up your hands in prayer to God and My people will prevail in battle.

VOICE ONE:              Every time the Lord provided a solution.  The forty years of wandering would be one of the greatest times of miraculous demonstration of God’s power in the entire history of the nation.  Yet still the murmuring continued.

VOICE THREE:          Moses has disappeared on Mount Sinai and we don’t know what has happened to him.  Make us gods who can lead us out of this terrible wilderness.

VOICE FOUR:            This time Aaron gave the people a solution.  Bring me your earrings and we’ll make a golden calf.  Finally, you will be able to see the gods who brought you out of Egypt and maybe then you will be satisfied.

                                    (READERS CEASE WANDERING AND #1, 3 AND 4 TURN TO WATCH # 2.)

VOICE TWO:             As Moses descended from the mountain he carried two tablets of stone.  They were the Word of God, written with God’s own hand.  The transcendent, almighty sovereign of the universe, the creator of heaven and earth had chosen to reveal himself to men.  Moses was carrying the very Word of God down to his people.  When he crested the final hill between him and the valley where the people were camped he stopped, stunned at the sight which greeted him.  Already the people had disobeyed God’s law, even before he could share it with them.  In an act of grief and frustration, Moses broke symbolically what the people had already violated spiritually.

VOICE ONE:              (TOWARD AUDIENCE)  Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.

VOICE TWO:             (TOWARD AUDIENCE)  Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.

VOICE THREE:          (TOWARD AUDIENCE)  Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.

VOICE FOUR:            (TOWARD AUDIENCE)  But Moses, we just threw all of the gold they brought me into the fire, and out came this calf.

VOICE ONE:              Thou shalt not bear false witness.

VOICE THREE:          The people have sinned a great sin and have made them gods of gold.  Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin—

VOICE TWO:             There is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not.

VOICE FOUR:            Bring a lamb, without blemish, for a sacrifice.

VOICE ONE:              Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

VOICE TWO:             Three times every year will all your men appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel.

VOICE THREE:          Observe to do all that I command you.

VOICE FOUR:            The feast of unleavened bread, the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of harvest, and the feast of gathering at the year’s end.

VOICE ONE:              Every firstborn male belongs to me.  Every firstling among the cattle, ox or sheep.  All the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem.

VOICE TWO:             Build me a tabernacle where I may dwell in the midst of my people.

ALL:                            Be ye holy, for I am holy.

VOICE FOUR:            So God came to dwell in the middle of the camp. Present, but unapproachable.   In the midst of a pillar of fire and smoke.  Dwelling in the holy of holies where none but the high priest could go.   Separated from the priests by the inner veil.  Separated from the people by the outer veil.  Separated from all by their sin.

VOICE ONE:              Without the shedding of blood there is no remission.

VOICE TWO:             Daily sacrifice.  With each lamb whose blood spilled out upon the altar, another stood waiting to take its place.  Always!  Another sacrifice to be made, another offering to be given, another prayer to be said.  The altar was never empty because no perfect sacrifice could ever be found.

VOICE FOUR:            (GRAB READER # 3 AND PULL HIM AWAY FROM THE REST)  We could create the perfect sacrifice.

VOICE THREE:          What do you mean?

VOICE FOUR:            Well, it’s obvious Moses’ way isn’t working.   All that blood, day after day, and where is it getting us?  Listen, Abihu, I’m telling you its time we came up with our own way to approach God.

VOICE THREE:          I’m listening, Nadab. 

VOICE FOUR:            I think it’s the incense we’ve been using.

VOICE THREE:          A new perfume?

VOICE FOUR:            Exactly. 

VOICE THREE:          So, it’s not our sin, it’s our smell.

VOICE FOUR:            Create a new incense and God will be pleased.

VOICE THREE:          Sounds good to me.

VOICE ONE:              But it didn’t sound good to God.  He had made it very clear that to break the law in one point was to be guilty of all. 

VOICE TWO:             Aaron wasn’t even allowed to grieve when the bodies of his two sons were removed from the tabernacle where they had died before the Lord.   When you serve a holy God you do everything according to the pattern he showed Moses on the mount.

ALL:                            Be ye holy, for I am holy!

VOICE ONE:              Fire and smoke.  The Shekinah glory that rested upon the Tabernacle, served as a constant reminder of the presence of a holy, inapproachable God dwelling in the midst of a sinful people.  They knew they were worshipping Jehovah.

VOICE TWO:             Fire and smoke.  The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night provided immediate and specific guidance for the nation of Israel as they wandered, preserving them from the aimlessness which would otherwise have torn them into increasingly smaller tribal factions.   They knew they were following Jehovah.

VOICE THREE:          (REJOIN # 1 AND 2)  When the cloud journeyed, the people journeyed.

VOICE FOUR:            (REJOIN # 1, 2 AND 3)  When the cloud rested, the people rested. 

VOICE THREE:          And everywhere they rested they left behind a cemetery. 

VOICE FOUR:            Forty years, and no one over twenty survived. 

VOICE ONE:              Except Joshua and Caleb.  Don’t forget Joshua and Caleb.

VOICE TWO:             The cloud was resting on the tabernacle and we were camped at Kadesh-Barnea when the spies were sent into the land.

VOICE THREE:          Twelve men in all, but who ever remembers the names of the other ten?  Shammua?  Palti?  Geuel?  Who were they?

VOICE FOUR:            They all took the same trip.  They all saw the same land.  They carried the grapes, they ate the pomegranates, they discovered a countryside so fertile it could only be described as flowing with milk and honey.

VOICE ONE:              They all saw the same cities.

VOICE TWO:             Walled!  And very great!

VOICE THREE:          They all saw the same warriors.

VOICE FOUR:            Giants!  They made us look like grasshoppers.

VOICE ONE:              (STEP FORWARD AND GESTURE AT OTHERS TO FOLLOW)  We can defeat them.    Let’s go up at once and take the land.  Our God will fight for us.

VOICE TWO:             They’ll eat us for breakfast.  Their little fingers are stronger than our legs.

VOICE FOUR:            It’s impossible.  Let’s choose a new captain and head back down to Egypt.

VOICE THREE:          (STEP FORWARD AND JOIN # 1)  It’s a good land, a prosperous land, a land of freedom.  The Lord will bring us into the land.

VOICE TWO:             Stone them!

VOICE ONE:              My servants—Joshua and Caleb—they alone will live to see this good land which I shall give them.

VOICE FOUR:            Gaddi and Igal and Sethur?  Who has ever heard of them?

VOICE ONE:              Forty years!  And everywhere they rested they left behind a cemetery.