December 7 1998

ARTICLE TOOLS

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Hollywood, having had its fill of religious boycotts, is bending over backwards with the new DreamWorks production about Moses, The Prince of Egypt. I felt privileged to be invited not once, but twice to a private screening of the animation in process—until I learned that several hundred other people had made the same pilgrimage to meet with Jeffrey Katzenberg at DreamWorks.

What an industry! For four years, 400 people, many of them skilled artists, have been working on a project that cost well over $100 million. They'll know in two weekends whether it will make or lose a bundle. No wonder they want the religious community on their side.

The Prince of Egypt is a fine film by any standard and takes surprisingly few liberties with the biblical story. Impressed, I agreed to write a chapter for Destiny and Deliverance, the book that will serve as a companion to the film, with the proviso that I could write about Deuteronomy, the recap of Moses' life. That book, often overlooked, contains personal outpourings by Moses as poignant and heart-rending as anything in the Bible.

Consider, for example, Moses' depiction of the horrors awaiting those who disobey the covenant (Deut. 28:64-68):

Then the Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. … There the Lord will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart. You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life. In the morning you will say, "If only it were evening!" and in the evening, "If only it were morning!"—because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see. The Lord will send you back in ships to Egypt on a journey ...