The Book of Exodus

[hornadylnl]

I'm reading the book of Exodus now and it got me to thinking about modern day people. God told Moses to bring the Israelites out of Egypt.

In Exodus 5, Moses went to the Pharaoh and asked to let them go. In turn, Pharaoh made the Israelites find their own straw and continue to make the same amount of bricks. In verse 20, the Israelite foremen approached Moses and said this. "May the Lord look upon you and judge you! You have made us a stench to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us."

In Exodus 7, God brought the plagues of blood, frogs, gnats, flies, plague on livestock, boils, hail, locusts, darkness and the plague on the firstborn. These were all things that God did that the Israelites were able to see with their own eyes.

In 14:11 when the Egyptians caught up with the Israelites, they complained to Moses and said this "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians'? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!"

In 16:3 the Israelites said to them, "if only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death."

There are several other such instances where the Israelites grumbled against Moses for bringing them out of Egypt. They grumbled to God for being slaves in the beginning of Exodus.

My point in this is that the Israelites saw first hand accounts of God's power and existance. They had to know that Moses was chosen by God and that God was using Moses to free them from slavery. Yet multiple times when things got hard, they complained to Moses that they were better off as slaves.

Today, we basically have modern day Moseses' trying to lead our country and world back to the right direction. Many seem to think that educating voters will put this country back on the right path. The Israelites saw the works of God firsthand and knew he was real and yet they still begged to be returned to slavery.

How do any of us mere humans think that we can educate people to give up welfare, socialism, liberalism, etc.? The Israelites only wanted what was easy and known to them. They didn't want to risk anything to gain their freedom. They wanted everything provided for them. There is no difference between the Israelites and your average American citizen today. Do any of you have real hopes that our country will ever return to it's founding principles?

 

[Joe Williams]

snip
Do any of you have real hopes that our country will ever return to it's founding principles?

Hope? Yeah, I have hope. Not optimism, but always hope a peaceful return will be possible.

 

[hornadylnl]

What struck me about this is that it is plain and simple human nature. The book of Exodus is about a time period that took place thousands of years ago. Leading up to the revolution, many didn't want to go to war.

It reminds me of this phrase. 'better the devil you know than the devil you don't'. I just think we are trying to battle against human nature and I believe it is a losing battle. Most of us on here see that what is happening isn't right and are willing to pay the price (up to and including their life) to preserve freedom for posterity. Unfortunately, the majority aren't willing to risk a hang nail for their freedom. I think we can educate a few, I just don't see us overcoming human nature.

 

[theweakerbrother]

Today, we basically have modern day Moseses' trying to lead our country and world back to the right direction. Many seem to think that educating voters will put this country back on the right path. The Israelites saw the works of God firsthand and knew he was real and yet they still begged to be returned to slavery.

How do any of us mere humans think that we can educate people to give up welfare, socialism, liberalism, etc.? The Israelites only wanted what was easy and known to them. They didn't want to risk anything to gain their freedom. They wanted everything provided for them. There is no difference between the Israelites and your average American citizen today. Do any of you have real hopes that our country will ever return to it's founding principles

Excellent correlation between modern peoples and an ancient story. Humanity experiences a lot of cultural changes but their experiences and what we call 'human nature' are not ever that much different from culture to culture.

The Hebrew slaves were forgone to their slave/master society, which is what happens to nearly every culture that is conquered and enslaved by another. Their lives were in terrible condition and their lifestyle expectations reflected that. People who once had the freedom to dwell in the land of the Egyptian kingdom had their rights eroded by a newer Pharaoh who was unfamiliar with their Hebrew inhabitants. For the sake of your analogy, we can interchange ancient Hebrews with modern freedom lovers.

It is important to note that while it seems the enslaved peoples of Hebrew lineage were slaves, they weren't completely complacent with it. The end of chapter one notes from an omniscient perspective that the Hebrews enslaved cried out to God against their enslavement (2:23-2:24). Moses abandons his Egyptian ways when he murders an Egyptian disputing with a Hebrew (presumably a slave). It seems that the grumbling of the Hebrews let to open disputes between the slave and master society. You also have the back story of the Hebrew women refuses to murder the male-born Hebrew children. Political dissidence is thick in the story and God had Moses purposed for a specific time to free His people.

Moses, Hebrews and converted Egyptians (and possibly other slave groups) were free but grumbled once they were in the desert. Miracles were shown, people still grumbled. It is extremely important to note that throughout it all, there was still a remnant of hope that existed with the wanderers in the wilderness.

Moses certainly did a better job than I would have done. The many typically overshadow the few when it comes to liberation and the cries for freedom.

How does this apply to modern humanity?

I get frustrated when I hear of layoffs at the local Cummins plants here in Columbus. My dad worked hard (now, not so much) for several years made a very good living doing a factory job. New hires will never have the same chance to make the kind of money he did but it seems that the work ethic doesn't match up with his either. The old school Cummins workers seemed to thrive on overtime. Now, when I hear about people getting laid off at Cummins, they voluntarily sign up for it and love it. Why? Free food via EBT card, unemployment checks electronically placed on their cards every month and a vacation during the spring months. Rather than be financially responsible and earn their living, these people are satisfied with their station in life and merely getting by and doing so on Uncle Sam's dime. What they do not realize is that their grasp of the truly medicore is a form of mental and economic slavery. This later manifests itself into political-dependence and the state gains power as more and more people adopt this lifestyle and reliance on the state rather than self-reliance.

There is power to be held in life and it is up to you who holds the power in your life. You can give it to the state or keep it to yourself.

I am foolishly hopeful and optimistic that some sort of mental/philosophical or even spiritual revolution will happen in this country that people become more and more self-reliant but my experience tells me that maybe I should not.

When the people of the Colonies were fighting against England (and others) to establish independence, it is said that only three percent of the population took up arms against the oppressing forces. Maybe that is all it takes for any kind of revolution to be successful.

I am one man and an extremely weak one at that. I've considered what my own personal decisions would be in a revolutionary situation and I doubt I have the stones to die for my country on an issue of freedom. It is even harder to consider it when you think that the freedom you would fight or die for wouldn't be appreciated by the masses who spend their welfare checks on soda and cookies, spend their monthly handouts on 42" LED televisions, and live a general life of Cretinism.

Freedom comes at a high cost and must be preserved by those willing to fight for it and those who must also fight to maintain it. We've lost a lot of rights in this country. Each time we did not fight to have those rights returned to us, we deserved to lose them whether it was from the liberal nanny state or the conservative-father/gov't-knows best approach.

Both modern and ancient stories maintain that people are generally complacent. People grumble, but not loudly enough to be beaten by their masters. People want responsibility but not if it costs a lot of themselves. But thankfully there exists the remnant of people both then and now that want to make a difference. God seems to intervene, occasionally, to help them make a difference.

 

[Donnelly]

<snip>How do any of us mere humans think that we can educate people to give up welfare, socialism, liberalism, etc.? Do any of you have real hopes that our country will ever return to it's founding principles?

No, I don't have any real hope, but to satisfy my own conscience, and knowing that I will have to justify my decisions to my Maker, I will continue to do my part and try to fight for what I believe is right and just.

 

[djl02]

Every thing runs in cycles, and repeats itself through out history. A good preacher that has good examples of this is Perry Stone. He's on regular T.V. and Sat. Check him out sometime,1/2 hour well spent.

 

[hornadylnl]

I am one man and an extremely weak one at that. I've considered what my own personal decisions would be in a revolutionary situation and I doubt I have the stones to die for my country on an issue of freedom. It is even harder to consider it when you think that the freedom you would fight or die for wouldn't be appreciated by the masses who spend their welfare checks on soda and cookies, spend their monthly handouts on 42" LED televisions, and live a general life of Cretinism.

TWB

Thanks for your excellent post. You are much better with words than I.

I quoted the above because that is where I'm at now as well. I'm a patriot through and through but I feel that my life isn't worth sacrificing so some welfare queen can continue to demand a check every month. A soldier will crawl to hell and back on his knees if he believes in the cause. It's kind of hard to believe in saving those who will spit in your face for it.

 

[Blue Tile Spook]

I quoted the above because that is where I'm at now as well. I'm a patriot through and through but I feel that my life isn't worth sacrificing so some welfare queen can continue to demand a check every month. A soldier will crawl to hell and back on his knees if he believes in the cause. It's kind of hard to believe in saving those who will spit in your face for it.

Hornadylnl, My comments aren't really directed at you, you just have some good words here that I would like to respond to.

My life is worth sacrificing if it benefits my wife or child. Secondary to that, my life is worth sacrificing for my mother or father if it benefits them. My life expectancy is shortened because of various chronic health conditions that I have. I would not sacrifice my life for the "welfare queens", but I would sure be the last man to leave a checkpoint built to slow down an invading force if it would allow my wife and son to escape. I would move so slow and be such an encumbrance to them that they would be better off without me if push came to shove. I would not throw my life away willy-nilly, though.

How do any of us mere humans think that we can educate people to give up welfare, socialism, liberalism, etc.? The Israelites only wanted what was easy and known to them. They didn't want to risk anything to gain their freedom. They wanted everything provided for them. There is no difference between the Israelites and your average American citizen today. Do any of you have real hopes that our country will ever return to it's founding principles?

I don't think this takes into account God's role in humanity and our thinking/feelings that he instills in us. I don't think that human words will turn someone away from their current position but if those words are inspired by God, those words can cut directly to the person's heart and instill changes that we could never have imagined.

As someone wrote above, I have hope but not optimism that people will remove their head from the sand.