When I first read Exodus, I made a rational picture, remaining as neutral as possible to both sides. The Hebrew people in Egypt at that time seem to have been mostly labours, despite living there since 4 centuries they have remained saperate without assimilating with locals. At same time the Hebrew population had grown so big that Royals had begun feeling the heat of possible revolt. The King seeing them not assimilating with local population had even begun controlling population growth. The Hebrews were not particularly assimilating kind, similar to Muslims in present times, they don't believe in assimilation with host population, they do not readily accept or honor local values.
Moses being a Hebrew, which he seems to have realized since childhood, as he was breast fed by his Hebrew mother, even though he lived a privileged life as he was adopted by Royal family. It is natural for him to grow sympathy towards his Hebrew community. He murdered a Royal staff who was beating a Hebrew. Moses than ran away from Egypt to skip punishment. Soon he settled with a desert tribe, married, had children there. After running away he seems to have realized that life is possible outside of Egypt as well, leading him to think about ways to free Hebrews. When his father-in-law talked about his tribe's gods, he seems to have devised a plan of using "God" as his tool for connecting with Hebrews in revolt against the Royal family. He made a custom version of god for Hebrews. He made a story that their God wants to set them free, and gave them their own land, ie. "The promised land".
He had strategic benefit of knowing the Royal family inside out. He successfully led the revolution and established himself as a man of God. Using power of successful revolution they even looted the local population when they were leaving. Using God's name Moses was able to unite people against the state and be successful in gaing freedom, however now creating the promised land was not as easy as creating invisible God. So, he was able to liberate his people but was never able to deliver the promised land in his lifetime.
Miracles that he is said to have done seems to have been added later to glorify their liberator/hero. Economic difficulties, natural disasters, diseases that helped revolution are told as miracles of Moses. But power of miracle vanishes when time comes for delivery of the promised land. Infact power of miracle works only when power of mob could deliver the same result. Moses went to Mount Sinai but he only got commandments not instructions to get the promised land. Instructions to go to the promised land couldn't be created but writing up commandments was possible, so he seems to have done just that. There are hints of growing discontentment among people maybe because he was not able to deliver the promised land. People had begun to go back to pagan way of praying, eg. Bull statue creation in the documentary. So the creation of commandments was necessary to rule the people who had begun feeling abandoned or cheated.
Moses being a Hebrew, which he seems to have realized since childhood, as he was breast fed by his Hebrew mother, even though he lived a privileged life as he was adopted by Royal family. It is natural for him to grow sympathy towards his Hebrew community. He murdered a Royal staff who was beating a Hebrew. Moses than ran away from Egypt to skip punishment. Soon he settled with a desert tribe, married, had children there. After running away he seems to have realized that life is possible outside of Egypt as well, leading him to think about ways to free Hebrews. When his father-in-law talked about his tribe's gods, he seems to have devised a plan of using "God" as his tool for connecting with Hebrews in revolt against the Royal family. He made a custom version of god for Hebrews. He made a story that their God wants to set them free, and gave them their own land, ie. "The promised land".
He had strategic benefit of knowing the Royal family inside out. He successfully led the revolution and established himself as a man of God. Using power of successful revolution they even looted the local population when they were leaving. Using God's name Moses was able to unite people against the state and be successful in gaing freedom, however now creating the promised land was not as easy as creating invisible God. So, he was able to liberate his people but was never able to deliver the promised land in his lifetime.
Miracles that he is said to have done seems to have been added later to glorify their liberator/hero. Economic difficulties, natural disasters, diseases that helped revolution are told as miracles of Moses. But power of miracle vanishes when time comes for delivery of the promised land. Infact power of miracle works only when power of mob could deliver the same result. Moses went to Mount Sinai but he only got commandments not instructions to get the promised land. Instructions to go to the promised land couldn't be created but writing up commandments was possible, so he seems to have done just that. There are hints of growing discontentment among people maybe because he was not able to deliver the promised land. People had begun to go back to pagan way of praying, eg. Bull statue creation in the documentary. So the creation of commandments was necessary to rule the people who had begun feeling abandoned or cheated.