June 21, 2009
Background Scripture: Exodus 5:1-6:1
Devotional Reading: Psalms 10:1-14

Commenting upon Exodus 5, John Edgar Park, president emeritus of Wheaton College, sees an enduring conflict in the Constitution of the United States between the conviction that the sole justification for the existence of any government is the protection of private property versus the assertion that human rights are paramount, a conflict posed by English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704).
Both property and human rights are important, but history teaches us that one must predominate the other.

The Bible, while recognizing on the importance of both, clearly and consistently places human over property rights. This is true in both the Old Testament and New Testament. Property rights are essentially a concern for things, while human rights are a concern for human beings.

Even the commandments that have to do with property are primarily concerned for the person whose property is coveted, damaged or stolen. We cannot obey and live the Great Commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves if we regard and treat our neighbor as a thing instead of a person.

Confrontation

The Pharaoh to whom Moses and Aaron were to take God’s message obviously regarded the Israelites as “things” instead of human beings. Today, we may not call them things, but we may still treat them as commodities, labor statistics or units of either production or marketing and thus, dehumanize these nameless, faceless people. Taking away someone’s humanity is a serious sin in the sight of God.

God’s strategy in freeing the people of Israel wouldn’t appeal to many of us today. God wanted Moses and Aaron to confront Pharaoh directly. His message was perhaps not very conciliatory and lacking in wiggle-room: “LET MY PEOPLE GO!”

Pharaoh’s response was basically: Where do you get this let-my-people-go stuff? The answer they gave him is just as valid today as it was then: “THUS SAYS THE LORD!”

But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord that I should heed his voice and let Israel go?” The contemporary version might be “Who says so?”

Today we might answer, “God – you know, the God of the Methodists, Roman Catholics, Baptists, etcetera?” Strangely, although “Let my people go!” is as biblical a command as any other, it has seldom been enunciated by Christians.

I remember the commands during my adolescence: “Thou shalt not dance, go to Sunday movies, smoke cigarettes (one church made an exception for cigars), drink alcoholic beverages” and so forth. But times change and so do commandments.

Recently, Bob Jones University, regarding its refusal to admit black students until 1971 and its ban of interracial dating, lifted in 2000, said: “We failed to accurately represent the Lord and to fulfill the commandment to love others as ourselves.”

Universal CEO

What I’m asking for here is, that if we are going to submit ourselves and others to commandments, let us start with the commandment to love God with our whole being and our neighbors as ourselves. This commandment, Jesus said, is the whole basis of all the law. So far as I know, it has never been revoked – just ignored.

The Pharaoh regarded the people of Israel as his property and so he remained adamant: “I do not know the Lord, and moreover I will not let Israel go” (5:3).

There are still lots of people today who would agree that they do not know the “Let-my-people-go” God, and they would praise the Pharaoh for his tough response: “You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves … Let heavier work be laid upon the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words” (5:7,9).

Today we would say: “If you won’t work for what we pay, we’ll get someone who will.” In other words: teach them who’s boss!
But Exodus tells us, “And God said to Moses, ‘I am the Lord’” (6:2).

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Rev. Althouse may write to him in care of this publication.