The Promised Land Episode 6: Recap & Review
- Kevin Keating
- 5 hours ago
- 7 min read
Episode 6 of The Promised Land depicts the anointing of Aaron as High Priest and the final stages of Bezalel's work on the Tabernacle (Exodus 39:32-40:33), culminating in the entry of divine presence into the Holy of Holies (Exodus 40:34-38). We also see the origin of the musical "Sons of Korah" and follow Joshua's doomed efforts to celebrate his birthday. Below I’ll give a brief summary of the episode and evaluate it as a Bible adaptation and a comedy.
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Summary of The Promised Land Episode 6 “Presence”
The Promised Land Episode 6 Cold Open: Pharaoh Practice
Episode 6 opens with a flashback to Moses and Aaron, the Sons of Amram, practicing for their first confrontation with Pharaoh over the enslavement of the Israelites. Moses, not a confident public speaker, has his confidence boosted by his charismatic brother, while they roleplay a variety of “moods” that Pharaoh might be in (e.g. bad, good, silly).
Moses, Aaron, & Bezalel in The Promised Land Episode 6
As Moses gears up to celebrate the completion of the Tabernacle and the anointing of Aaron as High Priest, he continues to avoid apologizing to Aaron for his passive-aggressive behavior, despite reminders from Zipporah. Finally, after revealing to Aaron that he’s been chosen by God as High Priest, Moses half-asks/half-tells Aaron, “We’re good?” without really waiting for a proper answer. Later, when Moses sees Zipporah, he insists that he and Aaron have made up and worked through their issues. When Zipporah talks to Aaron about it, he feels like he had a completely different conversation.
Meanwhile, Moses checks in on the progress of the final furnishing for the Tabernacle and Bezalel casts doubt on whether the materials will be ready for the planned opening celebration. And yet it becomes apparent that this is primarily due to Bezalel’s perfectionism and his refusal to accept that his work is good enough for the Lord.
As the day of the celebration draws close, Aaron confronts Moses over his non-apology apology, but Moses continues to avoid the conversation.
As Bezalel anxiously slaves away to perfect the Tabernacle furnishings, Moses assures the craftsman that he has done as the Lord commanded and urges him to go home and rest. Later that night, however, Bezalel’s wife reveals that he hasn’t returned home. Moses finds him still at work, driven by anxiety over his past failure. Moses empathizes, reflecting on his own failure, murdering the Egyptian (Exodus 2:11-15). He assures Bezalel that the Lord is concerned with his obedience, not the perfection of the work. Bezalel, for his part, reminds Moses of how hard Aaron has been working since the Golden Calf incident to make things right.
On the day of the Tabernacle celebration, the Israelites do a dramatic/musical retelling of the story of Israel’s journey down to Egypt and their Exodus under the leadership of Moses. After Moses praises the work of Oholiab and Bezalel in completing the Tabernacle, he summons Aaron to be consecrated. As Moses clothes Aaron in the Ephod, we intercut with a flashback to a heart-to-heart conversation between the two. Moses recognizes how he always used to envy Aaron’s superior charm and took advantage of the opportunity to belittle him for the Golden Calf failure, but now acknowledges he has failed to pursue peace and offer forgiveness. Although Aaron was very hurt, he forgives Moses and the Sons of Amram are reconciled.
Now consecrated, Aaron offers a sacrifice, which is consumed by fire, prompting the Israelites to worship. Bezalel, seeing the divine presence, realizes that the Lord is indeed pleased with his work. As they sing, Zipporah finds Moses and expresses pride in what he did. Afterward, Moses expresses pride in Aaron and the others and explains their next step: packing up and heading out to the Promised Land.
Miriam, Korah, & Chisisi in The Promised Land Episode 6
Miriam has been tasked with leading worship for the opening of the Tabernacle and is anxious about getting it right. She plans on culminating with a song, “We’re unworthy” and plans on holding singing auditions.
Korah is a bit peeved at the “nepotism” involved in the consecrating of Aaron as High Priest. But when he gets a flyer for music auditions, he recognizes a new opportunity to play a meaningful role and begins training the Sons of Korah as a barbershop group, drawing on Chisisi’s background as a boyband singer back in Egypt.
Practice for the celebration goes quite well. By now, Miriam understands Korah’s narcissistic personality and is able to manipulate him into executing her ideas by allowing him to claim them as his own. Still, Zipporah questions whether “Unworthy” is the proper final song and wonders whether Miriam’s private adoration song might work better, but Miriam dismisses the idea, insisting that she likes to keep her adoration private.
During the celebration, as the Lord sends down fire to consume the sacrifice on the altar, Miriam finally realizes that Zipporah was right. Instead of focusing on her own unworthiness, she leads the people in a beautiful song of praise, adoring the goodness of the Lord. As everyone else is singing, Chisisi notices a pigeon arriving and finds a message on it from his family in Egypt, which is planning on coming to join him.
Joshua, and Caleb in The Promised Land Episode 6
Joshua is eagerly inviting people to his big birthday celebration when he discovers that his birthday just so happens to coincide with the opening of the Tabernacle – effectively torpedoing his celebration plans.
Joshua sets out to cancel his party plans but struggles to get vendors to cancel their contracts. The magician refuses to give his money back unless he is willing to help out as a clown for another event. Inevitably, it’s an embarrassing affair, which Caleb witnesses. Caleb also discovers the invite for Joshua’s planned birthday and has pity for his friend.
Later, as the Tabernacle ceremony commences, Joshua is so taken aback by the beauty of the Lord that he isn’t worried about his missed birthday. Even so, he’s moved when Caleb shows up with a gift and wishes him a happy birthday.
Review of The Promised Land Episode 6 (“Presence”)
In my recent reviews, I’ve been tracking the modulations in the tone of The Promised Land. Perhaps even more than Episode 4, Episode 6 is quite sincere. Although we do get a little goofiness, particularly in Joshua’s less “significant” storyline, most of the other stories are driven more by character growth than they are by gags – and even Joshua’s story ends up being fairly emotional. The worship that ends Episode 6 cements the sincere and uplifting tone of the episode. In fact, for the last third of the episode, we get only a handful of small laughs.
Again, when I draw attention to this sort of thing, I’m not criticizing The Promised Land. I think the sincerity of the episode is well-executed and quite moving. The conversation between Moses and Bezalel, the conversation between Moses and Aaron, Miriam’s decision to change songs, Caleb’s gift to Joshua – I was affected by all of these moments. The show has done a great job of arcing all of its major characters and landing them in a meaningful place. But the decision to end the episode with a pretty sustained show of sincere worship will shape the potential audience. While I think most of the themes of the show are universal and could appeal beyond a typical “religious audience,” I could see some non-believing viewers being put off by the decision to climax the season with a worship song. Of course, the majority of viewers (by a large margin) are going to be Christians or Jews, so it may be wise of the show’s creators to end the season with a little more explicitly devotional note.
As always, I really appreciate the imaginative ways that The Promised Land engages with the biblical text. Throughout the last few chapters of Exodus, the text repeatedly comes back to how the Israelites are executing the Tabernacle “according to all that the Lord had commanded Moses” (Exodus 39:42, ESV). I loved how the show explored the pressure that a figure like Bezalel might feel to get things perfect and how meaningful it would be to have had the Lord bless his work with his presence. I also love how the show sets up the Sons of Korah for their musical role in the remainder of the canon (e.g. Psalm 42, Psalm 44). As far as the actual biblical events involved, Episode 6 plays things fairly straight and avoids belittling the solemn nature of the events that it covers.
Season 1 of The Promised Land has brought together sincerity and humor, biblical adaptation and imagination, in a beautiful way. I can’t help but wonder whether Bezalel’s anxious tinkering with the furnishings of the Tabernacle provides us with a picture of the painstaking effort that they put into crafting something worthy of the Lord. If so, I can only hope that they will also experience the sense of affirmation and blessing that Bezalel gets at the end of the episode when the Lord accepts his work. Whether or not The Promised Land achieves the same level of popularity and critical success as The Chosen or House of David, it is clearly a work of worship that reflects truth about the Lord, truth about his word, and truth about his grace for unworthy sinners – while also delighting the heart and exposing sin with a few well-placed laughs. I have no doubt that the Lord is pleased with the work of all those involved.
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