Pharaoh's Fallacies
17 Pharaoh said, “Lazy, that’s what you are—lazy! That is why you keep saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’ 18 Now get to work. You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks.”
Exodus 5:17-18
I try not to read politics into the Bible. We all have a tendency to want to polarise our times into good guys/bad guys but as the American election shows, sometimes it’s not so simple. Having said that, something about Pharaoh’s response to Moses' struck me today.
It’s interesting how Christian intention is often mischaracterized and twisted by those who hate them. Pharaoh says that the reason Israel wants three days to worship God is laziness. This serves as the pretext to work them even harder.
It reminds me a little of the current mischaracterisation around the freedom of Christian schools and other organisations to hold their members to Christian values. How is this often framed? As harmful & hateful discrimination.
Is that what it is? Well, maybe in a few cases it could be. But in most? I don’t think so. It’s simply a desire to love God and love people. Of course, this sounds alien to ears that believe love looks like validating everything about a person.
And this is what we need to remember. To Pharaoh, to today’s opposition, we are speaking another language. Because, who is the LORD after all? For Pharaoh, it was an excuse to be lazy because there is no LORD. Today, it’s an excuse to discriminate because there is no LORD. But we know better.
For Today:
Pray:
Exodus 5:17-18
I try not to read politics into the Bible. We all have a tendency to want to polarise our times into good guys/bad guys but as the American election shows, sometimes it’s not so simple. Having said that, something about Pharaoh’s response to Moses' struck me today.
It’s interesting how Christian intention is often mischaracterized and twisted by those who hate them. Pharaoh says that the reason Israel wants three days to worship God is laziness. This serves as the pretext to work them even harder.
It reminds me a little of the current mischaracterisation around the freedom of Christian schools and other organisations to hold their members to Christian values. How is this often framed? As harmful & hateful discrimination.
Is that what it is? Well, maybe in a few cases it could be. But in most? I don’t think so. It’s simply a desire to love God and love people. Of course, this sounds alien to ears that believe love looks like validating everything about a person.
And this is what we need to remember. To Pharaoh, to today’s opposition, we are speaking another language. Because, who is the LORD after all? For Pharaoh, it was an excuse to be lazy because there is no LORD. Today, it’s an excuse to discriminate because there is no LORD. But we know better.
For Today:
- Are you tempted to always label right/wrong/bad/good on people & their causes?
- Have you ever been misunderstood because of your faith?
- Pray for those who mistreat God’s people.
Pray:
- Praise the Father who is the God of truth and love.
- Give thanks for Jesus who was faithful to the truth in the midst of opposition.
- Ask God for His Holy Spirit to be at work in those who hate Christianity.
Posted in Exodus
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