Sound Familiar? (Rewind)

But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and besides, I will not let Israel go.”  Exodus 5:2 NASB

Lord – It’s too bad that English translations replace the consonants YHVH with “LORD” especially in this verse.  Why? Because Pharoah isn’t making a statement about his agnosticism.  He’s saying that he (as an Egyptian god) doesn’t recognize this other god named YHVH.  There might be another God named YHVH, but as far as he is concerned, such a god has no jurisdiction in Egypt which, by the way, already has a sovereign god on its throne.  By using the general term “Lord,” we miss the personal offense, and therefore miss the point.  This is a power struggle between gods.

Just in case you thought that this is simply ancient Near-Eastern history, I would remind you of the remarks made by Erica Brown about the Roman Catholic Church’s failure to address pedophilia.  Here is a summary of the implication of the study:

“[The abuse of power] occurs when –

• identification of what is working or not working is done by leaders. People’s experiences are not used to help define reality, which is assessed only from the perspective of those on top.
• what the people need is determined by the leaders. The authority figure decides what the real problem is.
• leaders are the only ones who know how to get things done. . . .
• communication is one-way: from leaders to subordinates. All communication originates at the top and is passed down through the ranks. . .
• accountability is one-way: up from people to leaders. . .
• opportunity for leadership is reserved for certain types of people, often based on race, gender, or religious affiliation.”[1]

So much for the Catholic hierarchy, right?  But wait, don’t these conclusions also apply to modern government, just as they applied to Pharoah’s Egypt 5000 years ago?  Has anything really changed?  Give men power and they will always want more.  In fact, power is the most addictive substance in the world, and has been since Eden, as the remark of Tubal-cain confirms (Genesis 4:22).  Perhaps power is the real temptation in the Garden—to be like gods.  Brown might have been writing about Moses in the wilderness, but she could just as easily have been writing about the politicians in Washington, D. C.  The government of God (the YHVH God) is the only government not subject to internal abuse, and human beings left that form of political arrangement millennia ago.  Egypt got what it deserved for ignoring God’s request.  So will we, I’m afraid.  Power politics reigns wherever men believe they are in control, and it makes no difference if it is in the secular world or the sacred.  Confirmation of this type of leadership in the Baptist denomination is reported in this article.  The lesson is pretty straightforward.  No one is immune from the glimmer in the Garden.

Topical Index: Erica Brown, power, abuse, government, Pharaoh, Exodus 5:2

[1] Erica Brown, Leadership in the Wilderness: Authority and Anarchy in the Book of Numbers (2013, Maggid), p. 112.