The people of Israel were despised by the Egyptians from the outset. The Israelites, like their fathers and their fathers before them, were shepherds. Patience, courage, love, watchfulness, foresight, stewardship, justice and discipline were the skills they needed to survive. They survived by properly caring for sheep, and their shepherding skills spilt into their civil virtues. The Egyptians were ruled by a heavy-handed megalomaniacal strong-man. They had one virtue: might is right. The most brutal man was the best man.
Prepared to be received by the Egyptians in Genesis 46, the Israelites learned quickly that “every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians” (Genesis 46:34), and the Israelites were relegated to a ghetto in Goshen. They were not permitted to climb the Egyptian social ladder or do commerce with their Egyptian neighbours. Egyptian prejudice confined them to establish their own culture within Egypt.
It was not all bad. They created their own culture and economy, and they flourished. Their segregation freed them to build a kingdom under the Pharaoh’s nose. Reflecting their shepherd-like values in their families and business, their culture thrived, while the Egyptian culture deteriorated under the heavy-hand of their strong-man, Pharaoh. Not being assimilated into the Egyptian super-power, the people of God flourished and prospered as aliens in a foreign land. Egyptian prejudice kept them from selling their soul to the Egyptian dream, and instead over several hundred years they built a culture and community upon their shepherd-like virtues that became a threat to the heavy-handedness of the Pharaoh-cult.
It is so easy to make application to our own time. As our culture moves away from the virtues of the Good Shepherd and increasingly cows to the loudest voice, no matter how nonsensical, we see more and more that we are not at home here. The system itself becomes less consistent with our virtues and even opposed to them. New laws and entertainment become more “might is right” or “pleasure is right,” “charm is right,” “death is right,” “lies are right,” “divorce is right,” “greed is right,” “debt is right,” “bad is right,” and on and on and on – basically any thing other than “shepherd-like.” Each “right” other than “shepherd-like” may appear gayer, in the 1930’s sense of the word. But the “everything-is-right” are already in the fangs of the “might-is-right.” Without knowing it, rejecting the Good Shepherd means embracing the strong-man, and the strongest man is the strongest man without a higher court of appeal. It’s like kids in a classroom when the teacher walks out. Lock the door, and the class bully’s true colours come out. He is now right because he has the might. Without an awareness of God, society becomes a classroom without the teacher. The loudest voice with the most guns is always right. The loudest voice stands at the front spewing his ignorance, and the rest believe because he has the microphone.
This is not the stuff we are made of. We follow a Good Shepherd, not a Pharaoh.
Yet, in this culture clash, is there a silver lining? In God’s providence there always has been, and I trust that like our forefathers we may find some good in all this.
Our work ethic and industriousness should shine. Shepherd-like people see laziness and entitlement as blight. Instead of protesting in the streets when jobs dry-up and waiting for governments to fix it, the people of God should be industrious and create things. They will develop industry and they will prove reliable workers. While so many will lay around waiting for their dream jobs and complain that things aren’t working out, God’s people will take responsibility for their lives as well as the lives of those they love and find a way to earn an honest living.
The bonds of our Christian community should be tight. The people of the Good Shepherd understand covenant love. As families deteriorate and communal trust is replaced with self-serving greed and manipulation, we will love each other and cultivate covenant loyalty within our families and churches. Serving the interests of our Shepherd makes us a people who work together for each others’ good, thus providing consistency and kindness within our relationships which leads to long-term advantages for the community and the people within the community.
The boundaries of the community will become more obvious. It will be more and more difficult to live in both camps. Folks will either be for us or against us. The difference between the church and the world will be stark.
We will become more intentional in passing on our beliefs to our children. None are under the illusion that we can depend on government schools or media to transmit our faith to the next generation. Parents and churches will work together to ensure the faith once and for all delivered to the saints is carried to the next generation.
In these conditions, the Israelites flourished, and I’m sure we will too.
While the cultural climate proves uncomfortable when “might is right” begins to despise the shepherd-like, it is not always bad. It is liberating. Without the cultural upper-hand on our side, we can cultivate our own holiness without chocking on the outside fumes. The world’s streams taste more toxic, and we drink more from our ancient sources and travel the ancient paths of our forbearers. What we have will hold because it’s of God, but the new cultural-elite have already sown their seeds of death. The world is becoming a big hippie commune of “free-love” and psychedelic ecstasy. None of those lasted in the 60’s, and this one will fall too. Like Israel of old, the church of today will humbly flourish under the nose of the new strong-men to build a bright city on a hill while the self-serving faithlessness of the world proves futile and deadly.
While it looked like Jacob and his family were fleeing to Egypt for refuge, God was secretly building Jacob’s family into a Kingdom to where disillusioned Egyptians could flee and find the love of Christ on display. I think it’s very much the same today. We are the Shepherd-like, creating a place for the disillusioned “everything-is-right” to flee from the “might-is-right.”
