Listening to my pastor's sermon this week - he brought out an important point which linked up with some thoughts inspired by another blog (http://www.chrisjwood.net/)I had recently read; this in turn, triggered the following post:
Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies . . . .” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. . . Exodus 1: 8-11 NKJV
In case you are unfamiliar with the story that chronicles the origins of the nation of Israel and the nation of Egypt, you may want to read it beginning in Genesis 37. In short, God had arranged things such that Joseph (one of the sons of Jacob) would end up as a prisoner in Egypt. In God's timing and through Joseph's gift of interpreting dreams, he found himself standing before Pharaoh and advising him on how to deal with an upcoming famine he had dreamed about. Pharaoh took his advise and promoted Joseph to second-in-command. Almost single handed, Joseph organized a campaign to first store up food supplies during seven years of plenty and then he managed the distribution of those supplies during the next seven years of famine.
At the end of the story, the nation of Israel - which was at that time just a very large family - moved into Egypt to ride out the remainder of the famine.
Years passed - even centuries - Israel grew into a great number of people. Joseph and his brothers died, people forgot about the history of those two nations. Finally a new king came into power who did not remember Joseph and had no real regard for his descendants.
At this point, the nation of Israel had outgrown Egypt and yet they had become enslaved by the Egyptians. My pastor said that he knew of no specific record of the point in time at which Israel stopped being guests of the Egyptians and became slaves. Apparently they gave up their freedom in incremental fashion.
The people of the United States of America have long had a reputation for having a healthy distrust of government. This is evidenced in the following quotes from some of the Founders:
"That government is best which governs least" -Thomas Paine
"It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority" -Benjamin Franklin
Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both. -Benjamin Franklin
For the past fifty years we have been trusting our government more - willing to trade off liberties here and there in order to attain security.
In his inaugural address, President Kennedy said "Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country!". Do any recent presidential candidates say things like that? No, they are talking about how they are going to work to establish this program or stop these people from getting rich, or fund this or that or to give "hope" or "change" or whatever the catch-word of week is.
They are speaking as if we are asking: "What is my country going to do for me?"
This seems to be the political trend of the day... from"the Great Society" to "Warner-Lieberman Act" it seems that every piece of legislation is about "saving" some people group or - I presume with "Warner-Lieberman" - the idea is to save the world. All at the expense of taxpayers and without regard to the success of such programs.
Little by little, people have been convinced to opt for security rather than liberty. And slowly, we are succumbing to bondage just like the Israelites.
It is disconcerting that Egypt's new king cared nothing for the contribution the Israelites had made; but even more disturbing is the fact that the Israelites themselves forgot who they were.
By the time Moses came along to lead them out, they were so ensconced in that slave mentality that it would take an entire generation for them to really shake off the Egyptian-servitude- mindset.
It appears very likely that from this year's election in America, a new leader will emerge who knows nothing of the "Joseph's" that moved this nation to her place of prominence. A leader who has no appreciation for the sacrifice, the wisdom and the piety of our Founders; no regard for this culture of freedom, self-reliance, capitalism and reason.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved
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