CHAPTER 5
THE OBELISK IN ACTION
From the Egyptians we know what the obelisk looked like and that it was
connected with the Immortals. But they don't tell us what the obelisk was used for,
or what it did. We need another ancient people to tell us that.
Fortunately there is one - the Israelites. Let's look at the book of Exodus in the
Bible, Chapter 14. I'm using the King James Version (KJV), as it's the most
accessible for viewers. The Egyptian army had the Israelites hemmed in on the
shore of a body of water, something like this:
The Israelites had been led to this place by "the Lord"
(EX. ch 13. v 21; ch 14. v 2; ch 14. v 9).
What the translators refer to as "the Lord" or "God" is Yhwh,
without vowels. "God" became in time a word too holy to be spoken, so Adonai,
meaning Lord, any lord really, was spoken instead of Yhwh. By then vowels were
used, so the vowels for Adonai were placed with Y-H-W-H to indicate you were to
say Adonai instead. Later translators didn't realize this so they put the Adonai
vowels into Yhwh in error, and that's how the translation as Jehovah came about
which is impossible in Hebrew.
But back to the Israelites who weren't too happy about being led into a trap by "the
Lord." We're told, in verse EX 14. v 19:
And the angel of God which went before the Camp of Israel moved, and went
behind them, and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face and stood behind
them.
And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the Camp of Israel. And it
was a cloud and darkness, but it gave light by night, so that the one came not near the
other all the night.
What's an Angel? An Immortal, and apparently this one is not Yhwh.
Now we begin to see the obelisk in action with an Immortal. The Israelites weren't
hemmed in as the Egyptians thought (EX. ch14. v3a). The light and cloud from the
obelisk kept the Egyptian army away from the Israelites that night and the water protected
their flanks from attack. The strong east wind (EX. ch14. v21) blew the cloud
towards the Egyptians and served another purpose later that night. (See my The
Red Sea Crossing for an explanation as to what actually happened at the
crossing). So here we have a detailed account of how an obelisk operated by an
Immortal who was not Yhwh intervened to help the Israelites.
After the successful Crossing and about three months later when the Israelites are
safely in the desert, there's more we need to look at (EX.ch19.v.3):
Moses goes up to the mount to talk to Yhwh. Yhwh calls to him out of the mount.
Yhwh says to Moses remind the people what I've done for them in getting them out
of Egypt and tell them if they obey me and keep my rules, they can be my people.
Moses goes and tells this to the people and they agree.
Moses reports back to Yhwh who says (transcribed into a modern language summary):
I will come to the people in a thick cloud so they can hear when I speak to you,
and believe you. Make sure they're clean today and tomorrow and wash their
clothes. On the third day I will come down in the sight of all the people upon
Mount Sinai.
All this is described in Exodus ch 19. And now I think we have good evidence that
shows we're on the right track because (EX. ch 19. v 12) Yhwh tells Moses to say
to the people they are not to "touch the border" of the mount: whoever touches
the mount shall be surely put to death. This doesn't make any sense if it's a
mountain, Mountain Sinai.
Perhaps you can see the tiny steps in the lower left centre of this upper part of an
El Greco (1541-1614) painting of Mount Sinai.
But would 80 year old Moses have been climbing up and down a mountain where
4000 steps were cut in much later Christian times? I suggest that improbability is
why there are seven locations of various Mountains in the Sinai desert claimed as
Mount Sinai. Jebel Musa is the most popular one. The point is it's not a mountain,
it's a mount somewhere in the Sinai desert. The mount is the level base the
obelisk stands on. Exodus gives us even more detail - ch.19 v.17.
So Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with Yhwh, and they stood
at the lower part of the mount. And the mount was "altogether on a smoke"
because the Immortal Yhwh descended upon it in fire, and the smoke rose as the
smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount shook greatly.
We have no idea what the technology was that drove the obelisk. All we can do is
represent it with our rocket launch system, which would create a similar effect. But
we've just had space rockets for about 60 years so it was probably quite a different
technology. We've only managed to reach the moon. But if the Immortals came
from elsewhere in the universe, they would presumably not have needed fire and
smoke to travel with, which suggests this display was put on to intimidate the
Israelites, and that it certainly did.
Then Moses spoke, and the Immortal answered him by a voice. This implies it
wasn't the Immortals' normal way of communicating. "Answered him by a voice"
isn't the same as saying spoke to him. It means that somehow a voice was
contrived so that Moses and the people could understand. We can cause a
computer to speak with a voice.
Remember tabernacle means 'temple', and temple means 'a dwelling for a god'
Here's Exodus Chapter 33 and I'm quoting bits between verses 7 and 12:
When Moses had entered into the tabernacle the cloudy pillar would descend and
it stood at the entrance of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses as a man
speaks to his friend, and all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle
door.
The Israelites have told us what the obelisk did. So now we know the obelisk could
move from place to place. The Immortal Yhwh came down in an obelisk -- a pillar
of cloud and fire -- the smoke rose from the mount as the smoke of a furnace. That
implies heat, and the whole mount shook greatly, so there was tremendous power
generated by the obelisk. But this still leaves us with an incomplete understanding
of the obelisk. Is there another ancient culture to tell us more about the obelisk and
its functions? Fortunately, yes, there is.