Broken Frontier

The Lone and Level Sands.  A. David Lewis, Writer.  mpMann, Artist.  Jennifer Rodgers, Colorist.  Archaia Studio Press, 2006.

Occasionally, a graphic novel is published which represents a thoughtful encounter with Biblical story and tradition.  The Lone and Level Sands, by A. David Lewis (former Librarian of Babble) and mpMann, is just such a novel.  Conflicting accounts in Bible stories cast doubt on whether human beings have free will, or whether we are simply instruments in the grand symphony orchestrated by God.  Lewis and mpMann illustrate this problem by telling the story of the Exodus from the point of view of Pharaoh.

The Book of Exodus opens by recalling the story of the migration of Jacob and his sons into Egypt.  It tells us that the Israelites were very fruitful and filled the land.  Eventually the friendship between Joseph and Pharaoh was forgotten and a new king perceived the strength and numbers of the Israelites as a threat.  Therefore, the Israelites were enslaved, and Pharaoh decreed that all new-born Israelite boys should be killed.  The mother of a child named Moses hid him to save his life, putting him in a basket in the reeds at the river's edge, in hopes he would be saved.  He was found and adopted by Pharaoh's daughter.

One day, when Moses was a grown man, he was watching the Hebrews at forced labor, and saw an Egyptian beat a Hebrew.  Thinking no one could see him, Moses killed the Egyptian and hid his body.  But he was seen by other Hebrews, and the news got back to Pharaoh, who tried to kill him.  So he ran away to the land of Midian, where he married and had a son, and settled down to tend his father-in-law's flock.

Later Pharaoh died, and the Israelites, in the depth of the misery of slavery, cried out and God heard them.  God remembered his covenant with Abraham, and resolved to deliver the Israelites from slavery.  One day, God appeared to Moses and told him to go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt.  God said to Moses, "you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; let us now go a three days' journey into the wilderness, so that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.  I know, however, that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand.  So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all my wonders that I will perform in it; after that he will let you go."  (Exodus 3:18-20)  God makes a reasonable prediction that Pharaoh will be reluctant to free a large unpaid workforce of Hebrew slaves, and reassures Moses that He will have the matter in hand.

Due to the incorporation of various interpretations of the same story into the final texts of the Bible, the narrative will often repeat itself without warning, telling the same story just told, but in a different way.  At this point in Exodus, the story is repeated.  God again speaks to Moses, calling on him to go to Egypt to bring the Israelites out of slavery.  This time however, God pledges to deliberately provoke conflict.  He tells Moses, "When you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders that I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go."  (Exodus 4:21)

Why the difference in the versions of God's call to Moses?  It's one thing for God to realistically assess the situation and realize that Pharaoh will not set the slaves free without being compelled by a mighty hand, as in Ex. 3:19.  But it's another thing altogether for an almighty God to antagonistically prevent Pharaoh from changing his mind and letting the slaves go, as in Exodus 4:21.  This intervention of God in a man's intentions is one of the bigger puzzles presented by the Bible, casting doubt on the concept of free will. 

This mystery is the central theme of The Lone and Level Sands, which explores God's actions from the point of view of Pharaoh, the man whose heart is being hardened. The authors imagine the struggles in the household and the heart of a man who is continuously shown his sin, and yet is prevented from repenting.  Lewis and mpMann imagine the frustration of a man who continually suffers punishment for a sin he is trying not to commit.  They imagine this man to be someone utterly sympathetic.  The Lone and Level Sands shows us a king in pain and, without exonerating him, suggests the steps such a man might take to understand the incomprehensible cruelty of his existence.

Exodus 4:21 raises a central philosophical problem.  By hardening Pharaoh's heart, God removes the possibility that Pharaoh might repent.  One might say, so what?  He's a king, he's treated like a god, he's brutal to his slaves, and he wants for nothing.  Let's wage a little class warfare here, and Pharaoh can go to hell.  But, by hardening Pharaoh's heart, God raises the possibility of hardening anyone's heart.  At stake here is our central concept of humanity, wherein we understand ourselves as people with free will.  If God can prevent us from repenting, even while making us conscious of our sin, and then further punish us for that sin, then we are free neither to sin or repent.  We become little more than slaves of God.

The Lone and Level Sands captures the essence of the dilemmas of Exodus 4:21 in dramatic and fast-paced action.  It doesn't quail at the multiple dynamics of the philosophical problem.  The novel is troubled by God's manipulation of Pharaoh, and yet thanks to this same God, the slaves are free and safe from further oppression and torment. 

In an astonishing ending, one that even the most dedicated Bible-reader will not see coming, Lewis and mpMann suggest that the finest qualities of our humanity may emerge when God is gone.  The one remaining question is whether we're up to the challenge.