{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "bskyPostRef": {
    "cid": "bafyreihyblguanot2p4lmkfxcatobpw6stpjko4onpredi7gmrdt5gleba",
    "uri": "at://did:plc:rzxm2r7lop5f2v5ssp345vgu/app.bsky.feed.post/3mmfqftlkb7c2"
  },
  "coverImage": {
    "$type": "blob",
    "ref": {
      "$link": "bafkreigbgzjek4d3bquptmnttejervy6wkekr2pgeje35em3vyc7bgzdg4"
    },
    "mimeType": "image/jpeg",
    "size": 545387
  },
  "path": "/2026/05/john-adamss-providential-moses-moment/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-21T20:06:11.000Z",
  "site": "https://providencemag.com",
  "tags": [
    "Uncategorized"
  ],
  "textContent": "On May 17, 2026, thousands of Americans gathered on Washington D.C.’s National Mall for Rededicate 250, a national day of jubilation, prayer, praise and thanksgiving for America’s 250th anniversary. This date was providential because exactly 250 years earlier the Continental Congress set aside May 17, 1776, as a day for fasting and praying. Continental Congress member John Adams was particularly touched by the sermon he heard that day as he pondered what role he would play in the weeks to come.\n\nFor months Adams had longed for a critical mass of Americans to arrive at the same decision that he and his wife Abigail had concluded a year earlier: America needed to declare independence from England. They knew, however, that their neighbors weren’t ready to support this step in 1775.\n\nA major shift took place when the blockbuster pamphlet, _Common Sense,_ was first published in January 1776 _._ Charmed by _Common Sense_ , Abigail watched as her neighbors and others came to the same conclusion advocated by the pamphlet: “‘Tis time to part.” Then the sermon John Adams heard on May 17, 1776, revealed that clergymen were also ready for America to declare independence from England.\n\n“I have this morning heard Mr. Duffield upon the signs of the times. He ran a parallel between the case of Israel and that of America, and between the conduct of Pharaoh and that of King George,” John Adams wrote to Abigail.\n\nDuffield’s comparison between Pharaoh and King George tasted sweeter than manna to Adams. The reason? It made sense of the madness.\n\n“Jealousy that the Israelites would throw off the government of Egypt made him issue his edict that the midwives should cast the children into the river and the other edict that the men should make a large revenue of bricks without straw,” Adams reminded her of the account. Then he explained Duffield’s current analogy.\n\n“He concluded that the course of events indicated strongly the design of Providence that we should be separated from G. Britain,” Adams wrote.\n\nIndeed. From disbanding their colonial legislatures to taxing the colonists while denying them representation in Parliament, King George III’s oppression and tyrannical actions were Pharaoh-like. The Battles of Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill in 1775 had raised the stakes and increased the danger to their lives. Pondering his role, Adams wrote to Abigail: “Is it not a saying of Moses, who am I that I should go in and out before this great people?”\n\nPressing on Adams’s mind was his own burning bush triggered by musket fire.\n\n“When I consider the great events which are passed, and those greater which are rapidly advancing, and that I may have been instrumental of touching some springs, and turning some small wheels … I feel an awe upon my mind, which is not easily described,” he wrote as he grasped the gravity of the situation in one hand and hope for liberty in the other.\n\n“Great Britain has at last driven America, to the last step, a complete separation from her, a total absolute independence, not only of her Parliament but of her crown.” Adams added that there was something very “unnatural and odious” in a government that was “1,000 leagues” away.\n\nWhatever role he would play in this separation operation—whether he would speak with the eloquence of Aaron or muster the courage of Moses to face Pharaoh—in that moment on May 17, 1776, Adams knew one thing was certain. “Confederation will be necessary for our internal concord and alliances may be so for our external defense.”\n\nBy June 1776, Adams was embracing his role. He was playing the part of Aaron, who paved the way for his brother Moses to lead. While serving with Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson on the committee to draft the Declaration of Independence, Adams recommended that Jefferson write the Declaration because he was an eloquent writer. Adams and Franklin edited Jefferson’s draft and supported Jefferson when the Continental Congress debated and adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. In this way, Jefferson was Moses while Adams was Aaron, a champion and supporter.\n\nAdams continued to be awestruck by their circumstances that summer of 1776. He predicted that independence from England would “be celebrated, by succeeding generations, as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations [fireworks] from one end of this continent to the other from this time forward forever more.”\n\nAs Americans rededicated America to God in Washington D.C. on May 17, 2026, they fulfilled Adams’s call to commemorate independence through solemn acts of devotion to God. Adams and the founders planted the seed of liberty on July 4, 1776, while America 250 in 2026 is the harvest, a time to reflect on the freedoms that have blossomed and spread over two and a half centuries of growth.",
  "title": "John Adams’s Providential Moses Moment"
}