When the Egyptians realized that they had just freed
an entire workforce of Israelites, they panicked. The Israelites had been set
to the tasks of hard labor for 400 years. Generation after generation woke up
to move bricks and harvest wheat. The Israelite children did not dream of
starting their own business or building a new home. Their future had been
hijacked by the realities of slavery. All of their hope would be dictated by
the Egyptians. For many Egyptians, outsourcing the hard labor had become a way
of life.
For the Israelites, oppression and fear had define who they
were as a people. No longer where those things to fight against. For
generations, grandparents had instructed their grandchildren the ways to remain
human and yet a slave. How to remain free in their soul while in bondage for
their reality. When Moses shows up on the scene, he is asking the Israelites to
strip themselves of the comfort they had found in oppression. It was who they had become. They had become
someone else’s convenience. Freedom was a needless accessory. While their daily tasks were instructed,
their necessities were taken care of. Now Moses is asking them to put their
national freedom and the name of their God above all else. To forsake the daily
provisions and proclaim their allegiance to God. To march defiantly away from
Egypt and trust that the Lord is going to provide food, shelter, and a way of
escape.
As Moses fought for their freedom, a sense of jubilation
began to fill the cavities of a population emptied of identity. Under duress, Pharoah had let the
Israelites go. I am sure tentative
celebrations ensued. As they walked away from their homes, their heads were
lifted in confidence by the protection they had received during the ten
plagues. All around them they watched, heard, and smelled suffering among the
Egyptians. It seemed that they had been inoculated from that reality. But their
eyes would still behold the power and destruction that their God was capable of.
The scuffle of their feet created a barrier of smoke and
dust as they pulled themselves into freedom. Their steps would quicken as they
realized that retribution was only a fear entertained. Until someone heard a noise.
The dust settled as their feet stopped walking. Whispers and confusion would
ensue as they tried to identify the rhythmic sounds of an encroaching Egyptian
army. Pharoah had been shaken to his senses by the tasks that were now laid
upon his own people. They would have to do their own labor. They would have to
own up to the tasks once belonging to the Israelites. That would not do. The
social status gap had already widen and been set in stone. The Egyptians would
not be doing the work of an Israelite.
The Israelites turned their heads from the sounds of
oncoming horses and chariots to look straight ahead at a horizon of water. Trapped in by an enemy of humanity and nature. Their death would
be by sword or drowning. Two fates and no faith. Exodus 14:12 “Is this not what
we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians than
to die in the wilderness.” Despite
being rescued 10 times over in Egypt, their present reality pushed them so far
into fear that their salvation seemed like a dream. Fuzzy and distant, they
ached to remember the salvation of the Lord. It seemed a luxury to sit in the comfort of the Lord.
Urgency would now force them to rely on their present circumstances.
