I’ve been making my way through Torah and am in the middle of Exodus, specifically the Ten Plagues. Paul, following the Risen Jesus, remarks that everything written in the law and the prophets is ultimately a sign pointing to Jesus and, therefore, is “written for our benefit”. Recently, on my prayer walk, I was thinking about that and it occurred to me that, whatever else you can say about the Ten Plagues, they do certainly map to the experience of breaking the grip of an evil tyranny. Tyrants don’t just roll over and say, “I see your point. Sorry about that. Here, have your freedom.” They cling to power to the last second by their fingernails and it takes repeated blows to the face before that grip can be broken. They fight, hurt, lie, kill, make false concessions, scheme, and never give up till their capacity to make war on reality is decisively broken.
That is the kind of struggle Exodus depicts. It is not a story interested in the question, “Why does God allow such a world?” It is interested describing God taking the part of the slave in a world where, like it or not, such things happen.
In short, our world, as we have made it. And our world as it exists today since, just to underscore that *we* made this world, our most recent Pharaoh was crowned of our own free will and of our own free will we democratically handed him the chains he is now wrapping us in.
Paul understood that a man in physical chains could be spiritually free, having worn them himself repeatedly. He also understood that a free man could be weighed down by chains of sin since he had worn them himself. Striking off chains of either kind requires struggle. But the good news is that God donned all our chains and broke them and is with us as he was with Israel in her bondage. The fight will continue and his liberty will prevail. Our part is to have hope, do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly before our God–and doing that is not passive, but a long, persistent, arduous, relentless, one-foot-in-front-of-the-other slog.
Let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we do not lose heart. (Ga 6:9)
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. (1 Co 15:58)
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