The Empire Strikes First

Exodus begins like the beginning of any great narrative.  In a matter of a few paragraphs, the author manages to connect the main narrative to the preface/introduction and set the stage for the crisis and plot that will introduce the main setting of God's great story.

These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family: Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah; Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin; Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher. The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all; Joseph was already in Egypt.

Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them.

Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”

Those few paragraphs sum up quite a bit of history and information quite nicely.  We left the story with Joseph down in Egypt.  He had just managed to bring his family through the famine and acquire a place to live in Egypt.  Not only was Joseph managing to bring a sense of peace and economic stability to the most powerful empire in the world during a time of great recession, but he had also managed to take care of his family by providing them with pretty sweet digs.

This is one part of the Exodus story that is rarely addressed.  The Israelites are given the land of Goshen.  Bible teachers frequently nod to that part of the story and nobody ever seems to want to talk about what kind of land the land of Goshen was.  To this day, the land of Goshen is the most fertile piece of farmland on planet Earth.  Each year, for thousands of years, the Nile River floods creating soil that is unlike anything to be found on the planet.  A few years back, National Geographic ran a cover article documenting the best soils in the world.  The Nile Delta (the land of Goshen) still has over 100 feet of incredibly rich top soil.  In case that doesn't mean anything to you (like it didn't to me) the next best soil in the world is the rich soil of central United States (i.e. Iowa, Nebraska, etc.).  They have an average of 4-6 feet of top soil.  Compare that to the 100 feet of soil in Goshen and you're starting to get an understanding of what we're working with in the Exodus story.

But the Egyptians had a problem.  They liked to build houses and lives in which you could settle down.  You can't build a house in a region that floods for 2 months every year.  So, when this wandering group of nomadic shepherds who live in tents show up, the arrangement works out well for both sides.  Egypt acquires a new demographic that will farm their land, nomads that see it as no big deal to pack up and leave for two months each year.  And the Israelites get to live on the richest piece of fertile land the planet has to offer.  In fact, we've even found evidence that Pharaoh would employ these people (the 'ibiru' people: most scholars identify this people as the Hebrews, and you may notice the phonetic similarity) during the rainy season to help his many building projects around the empire.  We've found records of the rations for his workers.  They were offered a five-day, forty-hour work week, housing, benefits, and an upper-middle-class pay scale.

It's safe to say that the Hebrews were living the good life in the land of Goshen.

You see, nobody ever told me that growing up.  Now, to be fair, those details don't reside in the biblical text, but a simple study in the context of Exodus will reveal the nature of the land of Goshen.  I had always pictured the land of Goshen as the land of miserable desert, horribly stunning heat, and Egyptian pyramids.  And that's just not accurate.

But something changed.  The author tells us that a king arises that sees the world differently.  And he (or she for that matter — some of the Egyptian rulers were women) doesn't value this partnership with the Israelites.  In fact, this ruler sees the Israelites as a threat, and now the entire scene in Goshen shifts.

The Text does not tell us exactly when this shift takes place.  We are told that the Israelites are down in Egypt for 430 years.  How many of those years were easy years of abundance and blessing?  Thirty?  Two hundred?  Four hundred?  At some point, things change dramatically and the Bible leaves this period ambiguous — perhaps on purpose.  Do we hear echoes of Genesis 15 in the Exodus story?  Could the author of Exodus be dropping us hints that no matter how ‘blessed’ with abundance the Israelites were in Goshen, they were still living in slavery?  Could it be that the change of a ruler wasn't really the tipping point of the real problem with the Israelites in Egypt?  Could it be that in spite of their years of blessing and abundance, the Israelites were really in slavery for 430 years?

I remember suggesting that God was telling Abram that because of his trip to Egypt, he had brought Egypt back with him.  And because of this truth, God was going to have to get Egypt out of him and his descendants.

If you haven't gathered yet, this post is full of speculation and I want to be clear on that.  I believe there are hints in the Text that lead us to some conclusions, but I want to be clear about what the Text does and does not say.  At the end of the day, the Bible just doesn't fill in all the blanks for us.  But, having said that, let me take a blog post to propose some ideas that may be at work here in the story of the Exodus.

When they lived in the land of Goshen, the Israelites were farmers (and shepherds) in the most successful agricultural society of their day.  This was true not only because of the richness of the soil, but also because of the Egyptian advances in technology.  The Egyptians had helped advance the Iron Age by discovering how to make a stronger iron:  by adding oxygen to the fire of their smelting furnaces, they had created a mightier iron.  This iron was everything to the world of the Egyptians.  Iron was used to make two major things: tools and weapons.  Whoever possessed the superior technology would have the edge in war and in economic production. 

As farmers, the Israelites were benefiting from Egypt's technological advancements.

But there is always a price to pay for progress.  And if you aren't paying the price, somebody else is.

It turns out that Egypt was powering its furnaces through slave labor.  Slaves would be made to jump on the leather billows that would add oxygen to the smelting furnaces.  The extreme heat of the furnace would inevitably cause the death of the slaves that powered them.  No matter.  Just gather more slaves. 

Remains of ancient furnace at Timnah Mines, just outside of Eilat

And the cry of these slaves rose to heaven.  And YHVH is a God who always hears the cry.

I wonder if God cared about the fact that his people were using tools made from slave labor?  I wonder if the Israelites cared?  And I wonder if the correlation between these two things is important.

You see, the seduction of empire is powerful.  We long for comfort, ease, and security.  We want things to work better and faster and stronger.  We want to be provided with a better product.  And, quite frankly, we don't care how it gets to us.  Where is your t-shirt made?  Do you know?  Do you care?  Does it matter if it was made by a 6-year-old girl working for 6 cents an hour under forced labor?  Or are you just glad that you got it for a good buy?

How are you able to get a tomato in January?  Have you ever considered that?  Do you realize that we are seduced by the power of empire every day?  In the name of comfort and ease and luxury and convenience, we are seduced into a world that provides us with products that come at a price.  And if you're not paying that price, somebody else is.

In a thought-provoking exercise, I invite you to visit http://slaveryfootprint.org/ and take their survey to see how many slaves work for you.

You see, I think the story of the Exodus is about God having to get Egypt out of our hearts.  We're shocked to read throughout the Bible that the Israelites were actually worshipping Egyptian gods while they lived in Goshen.

Joshua would say: “Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped in Egypt…”

Because the kind of life that empire promises is seductive.  And I think that it matters.  I think it matters where your shirt is made and where your tomatoes come from.

I think that God cares.  I think that he hears the cry of those who suffer from injustice.

And eventually, I think God says, “Listen, if you won't help Me hear the cry of the oppressed — if you won't stop taking advantage of the marginalized — then I will make you the oppressed.  Because I have to get those Egyptian gods out of you.”

And eventually, a king arises who knows not of Joseph.


** This post (and the next one) has been shaped by the teaching of Ray VanderLaan.  Much of this teaching can be found by watching the first three lessons of "God Heard Their Cry".  (Volume 8 of That the World May Know series; Focus on the Family)