An Empire Turned on its Head: Exodus 11–12
Reading for Wednesday 3.16 – Friday 3.18
The escalating conflict comes to a morbid end. The empire of Pharaoh has realized its impotence and it now lies in rubbles. The slaves are slaves no more, but a people… Yahweh’s people.
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Read Exodus 11–12
“Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron in the night and said, “Get up, get out from among my people, both you and the Israelites! Go, serve the LORD as you have requested! Also, take your flocks and your herds, just as you have requested, and leave.
But bless me also.”
Exodus 12:31-32 (NET)
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An Empire Turned on its Head.
The escalating conflict between Yahweh and Pharaoh reaches a stunning and unsettling climax. It is now the Egyptians crying out (11:6) and Moses (and his God) who is feared throughout Egypt, not Pharaoh (11:3). In a few short chapters, the power dynamics have flipped. The ruthless oppressor of chapter 1 is now pitiable, weak, and entirely at the mercy of the slaves and their God.
The final plague highlights just how vulnerable the most potent force in the world was. The narrative is terse, unapologetic, and to the point. It happened in the dark of the night, Yahweh struck the firstborn in the land of Egypt without the lamb's blood, from ruler to beast. The horrific nature of this final "wonder" aside, Exodus highlights the helpless and hopeless state of Pharaoh's empire. A deified ruler was the life force of the empire and the empire's people. Yet Pharaoh could not even protect his own home. The empire has fallen, and the slaves of Pharaoh are free.
Yet the final command Pharaoh will give, "but bless me also," directs us to the moral of Exodus's story. A blessing was something the greater bestowed on the lesser, the stronger to the weaker. It carries the idea of implanting some of your own abundant strength and life force into another. Those having all the wealth, power, resources, and prestige could elevate the lives of those below them.
The remarkable irony in this instance is in the ruler of the Egyptians asking a slave to impart to him power, privledge, life. In this instance, Pharaoh comes to terms with his impotence and calls out to the only one he thinks can help him, Yahweh and His mouthpiece, Moses.
The power of blessing flows from Yahweh, the emancipating God, not the powers of the empire and all its resources. In the words of Walter Brueggemann, "The power to bless is not within the grasp of the empire."
With this realization and newfound freedom, the formerly enslaved people, Israel, move beyond Pharaoh and into a life of God's presence—one not dependent on empire, but on the God of life.
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Reflect with a friend
What would you identify as the empire in your life, those things offering power, prestige, wealth, life, etc.? What draws you to them? What do you hope to find in them?
Is it easy for you to believe that “the power to bless is not within the grasp of the empire?” Why or why not?
What might it look like for you to find blessing (be imbibed with life) in Yahweh today? Where are you finding this to be the case? Where are you struggling to find life in Yahweh?
How might you exchange some of your power, prestige, privilege, etc. in order to bless others?
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Next Reading
Sat 3.19 – Tue 3.22
Exodus 12–15
“Keep Still”
