Oh Pharaoh, Let My People Go

Increasing Tensions As we post this footage of the events this week at the Greek – Macedonian border, we know that there will be a spectrum of reactions. Some will find it easy to interpret the footage as the emergence of the refugee aggression that many have feared. The clip tells only a piece of the story. Please read-on before you respond.

BECAUSE WE KNOW HOW THAT STORY GOES

You might liken it to the Exodus, with Pharoah’s Army behind and the Red Sea ahead. How we read the story of our Israelites and we cheer them on to freedom, trusting that God will make a way. But, of course, we know how the story goes.

How life under Pharaoh was a slavery of hellish proportions. How the tension built as the celebratory goodbyes to Egypt waned with the sight of the perilous sea ahead. And of course, those Israelites had every right to leave.

But, of course, we know how that story goes.

How the Red Sea parted and the land sucked up the water. How the people passed through the wall that blocked their passage to freedom.

But, of course, we know how that story goes.

And, we celebrate because not for a moment would we cast ourselves in the role of Pharaoh.

Not for a moment would we doubt that the story of Israelite freedom is anything but our own story. Nor would we ever doubt that it is our rescue that God orchestrates.

No, we read that story from the comfort of our armchairs with a cup of organic coffee steaming in our hands, our pantries full and our showers hot, never giving thought to the possibility that we are

the absolute antithesis of that Israelite breaking into a dead run toward that throbbing sea for her freedom.

or that Syrian breaking through a Macedonian razor-wire fence with a homemade battering rod.

THURSDAY’S POST: THE OTHER SIDE OF THE REFUGEE SITUATION

Check back tomorrow for a brief on the issues, the background, and the people that make up the refugee situation.