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Most of the people sort of understood in terms of their gods and their religion. >> can we account for the plagues naturally? probably. is that the point of the story? certainly not. in the space of a year these ten disasters destroyed egypt. and that's the point. it's a miracle. miracles don't beg natural descriptions. miracles are miracles. they are when god intervenes in the order of nature. >> then god told moses to prepare the people for the coming of the tenth and worst plague. the killing of all the first-born. >> moses instructed the jews to sacrifice a lamb and to paint its blood on t...

Am." >> basically, moses is given the mission. go down. shall we sing it? go down moses? go down and tell pharaoh to let my people go. >> you know, moses is very reluctant when god signals to him that he has to be the leader of the jews. and his first response is effectively i don't want to be or i wouldn't be good at it. >> he is an unsure leader. don't pick me, god. how many of us have -- you know, if some finger came out of the sky and said you, we would say no, not me, not me. >> reporter: but it turns out there was another figure in ancient egypt who didn't hesitate to give everything up ...

>> there are a lot of ways to wrestle with it. you can wrestle with the political ramifications. freedom never comes easy. it has never historically come easy. wars never end easily. people do not obtain rights easily. but it says in the talmud that when we divorce justice from mercy that is pure evil. so it was unquestionably just to free slaves. and it's unquestionably right to be merciful. but it certainly seems in the tenth plague like mercy has been divorced from justice. whatever we think about the egyptian enslavers, we must believe that some of them were good people, some of them were ...

Easy as it looks. >> you feel like you're going to topple over the edge. >> reporter: as we regrouped in the dark and remote mountain range, it wasn't hard to imagine how the israelites, waiting for moses to return, got nervous. >> moses is up on the mountain 40 days, 40 nights. the israelites down at the foot of the mountain terrified that he is gone. >> reporter: alone, the bible says the israelites began to doubt the one god and took comfort in a familiar bad habit. >> at the very moment that moses is sealing the deal with god, that's when they build the golden calf. >> reporter: when moses...