The Impeccable Pharoahs of Our Time

How embedded is the idea that we need to race to the top, find success, earn a comfortable salary, score high grades, study hard in school, etc? The cycle seems like it never ends. One life after another, what really drives our desire to improve society? ambition, personal goodwill, the unknown? Some people really do great things, but for what end? Thinking about my own goals, most of them are because people say that such and such a path is secure, that joining a group here, networking there will help me in the long run, that it will set my future and let me increase my choices. But what really is all that for?

The Israelite foreman in Egypt were adept at what they did. Most likely insiders of the system who knew what it took to use the ins and outs of the slave system to eek out a living, the foremen were most likely somewhat better off the the other slaves. They must have worked out a system of their own to make do and thrive in the slave society that they were born into. It must have been a reputable position, something people aspired to become. "Son, when you grow up, be like Uncle Seth. He's a foreman." "Seth, he must be so smart, he's a foreman." "Foreman Seth is such a great person. He studied hard and was appointed foreman at such a young age." "Son, you see Uncle Seth there, you can learn a lot from him."

Presenting their case before pharaoh to free the Israelite people, Moses and Aaron are flatly rejected. Pharaoh moreover makes the work harder for the Israelite slaves, demanding more production from them while taking away the supplies to make the products. The foremen, beaten by the Egyptians for not bringing in enough of their quotas, plead with pharaoh about their unfair treatment, but are turned away for being lazy. Finding Moses and his brother, the foremen blame them for their new burdens and their new disadvantaged situation.

Losing their comfortable and reputable positions, they place blame not on the system, on the impeccable, immovable, uncontrollable pharaoh, but on the ones who had their best in mind. These were the people who learned to adjust, to make more than ends meet, who were more educated and had a stronger verbal influence over their fellow people. But in the end, what did they really seek? Their own life security, insurance against back breaking labor, comfort from living a painful lifestyle. They failed to see the freedom that Moses and Aaron call them towards.

And how different is society today? are the entrepreneurs, CEOS, movie stars, VPs, executives the people we strive to become? Is financial security something we strive after? Better lives for our children, so that what, they can achieve in their lifetime what we are not able to? For what purpose? The elusive happiness or any other great meaning we make for ourselves, or push ourselves to pursue: why fall into a trend of what is comfortable and accepted, when freedom, offered through God's provision, is freely given? Life may not be, and will not be comfortable, but it is a life worth living, with a purpose created not by a system of the world, with a relationship not fabricated in order to gain riches, with a direction towards fulfilling something greater than impersonal happiness.