Isaiah Roman

Bondage to Pharaoh

There is a parable in the Old Testament for our nation today. It is found in the 47th chapter of Genesis. The story is the story of Joseph, after the Israelites came to Egypt, during the seven years of famine.

During this time there was no grain, no food in the land, except for the stores that Joseph had gathered for the state. Pharaoh, under the direction of Joseph, distributed the grain, not only to Egypt, but also to the surrounding lands as well.

In the first two years the people payed for the grain with money. In the third year people began to run out of money. Still in need of food, they began exchanging their livestock and possessions. When they ran out of those, they began to sell their land and finally, themselves.

In exchange, Joseph gave them some of the seed he had in stores as seed for future crops. The deal he made with the people was that they could use the seed for their fields, but that one fifth of all of the proceeds of their labor must be paid to the pharaoh.

The priests were exempt from all of these dealings because pharaoh had given them a special allotment of food. They didn’t need the food as bad as the people did, so they didn’t end up selling themselves to the government. The people, however, willingly sold themselves to the state in exchange for their lives. “You have saved our lives,” they said. “May we find favor in the eyes of our lord; we will be in bondage to Pharaoh.” (Genesis 47:25)

The people looked to the government for their salvation. In exchange they sold themselves and put themselves into bondage to the state. Three generations later the entire region was under the control of a new pharaoh. This pharaoh had forgotten all about Joseph, but still had all of the powers Joseph had secured for the state. Under this new pharaoh, all of the people worshipped him as a god, and he ruled over them as if he were a god.

Today we have a famine in the land. The difference is that our famine has been manufactured, fabricated by those people who clearly understand the principle of this story out of Genesis. Those persons who are out of work, who have no means of providing for their own food, or health care, or the means to obtain these basic needs are willingly selling themselves to the state in exchange for salvation.

The difference is that this pharaoh, our pharaoh has already forgotten God. He believes himself to be the ascendency of man, a master of destiny. He does not believe that he is a god, only because he doesn’t believe in god(s). Rather, he sees himself as another incarnation of the Christ, because all his life he has been taught that Jesus was the great social reformer, the first dispenser of social justice. In reality he is Amon Ra, the sun god, a perversion of the Son of God.

Today the people are willingly selling themselves to the state. They laugh and cheer with the prospect of salvation given to them by the magnanimity of the administration. When amnesty for illegal aliens is passed, they too will cheer and clap for their new found “freedom.” What will have happened is that the very last freedom, the freedom to die with dignity, will have been taken from the people and purchased by the state. This nation will become a one-party democracy, no longer a federal republic.

When the health care workers receive their food from the government, and the aliens, receive their lands in exchange for a portion of their labors, and all of our goods and services succeed and fail at the behest of the government, those persons who have sold themselves to the state will have no option but to vote for the people who hold their lives in their hands.

The irony is that the people will willingly do it. They will cheer, and clap while it happens. They will say to themselves, and to their pharaoh “May we find favor in the eyes of our lord; we will be in bondage to Pharaoh.”