So the Egyptians made the Israelites their slaves. They appointed brutal slave drivers over them, hoping to wear them down with crushing labor. They forced them to build the cities of Pithom and Rameses as supply centers for the king. But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more the Israelites multiplied and spread, and the more alarmed the Egyptians became. So the Egyptians worked the people of Israel without mercy. They made their lives bitter, forcing them to mix mortar and make bricks and do all the work in the fields. They were ruthless in all their demands. [Exodus 1.11-14]
As simple as this may sound, slavery is associated with work.
As we see in the opening passages of Exodus, the work of slavery for the Israelites became highly oppressive. This increasing oppression happened because Israel was noticeably blessed by God and the Egyptians felt threatened by it.
Now, we should pause here to understand that God ordained work. Along with work however, God promised abundance and blessing, but within certain parameters:
The LORD God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. But the LORD God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden—except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.” [Genesis 2.15-17]
We should also understand at this point that the work God ordained had everything to do with man's most basic need: food. And, it is in this most basic need where we find that God placed a limitation upon what man could eat. Abundance of food was was the result of man's work, but there was a limitation.
At the point man disobeyed God, eating the forbidden fruit, man's work first became oppressive.
And to the man he said, “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains. By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.” [Genesis 3.17-19]
As the history of mankind progressed, it was the basic necessity of food that landed Israel in Egypt. God indeed used this set of circumstances to accomplish significant Bible history, but we are also afforded the opportunity to see an undeniable principle at work along the way. That Biblical principle is this: the pursuit of food put God's people in bondage.
We should furthermore understand that God designed man with the need to eat. He particularly engineered the male human body for physical labor to this end. However, just because Adam tended the entire Garden of Eden did not give him permission to eat of every tree. He and the woman were forbidden to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In all the abundance of the Garden of Eden, man was allowed to eat freely in return for his work and no other fruit was forbidden, just that one fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Just that one. But human selfishness and pride do not deal with prohibitions very well...
So also, Jacob's family needed to eat. In a particularly bad weather pattern, all their labor yielded no food and so they had to consider their options if they were going to eat. Egypt had food. They went to Egypt to get food so they could live. And, food they got. However, rather than getting the food and going back home to stay, the emotion (son and brother Joseph was there) and convenience of moving to Egypt (they were invited, interestingly enough, not by Joseph, but by Pharoah) led to God's people being oppressed more so than ever in their work for food. Innocently enough, Israel made a simple decision that ultimately yielded brutal slavery. They could have chosen to only buy food in Egypt and keep their residence in Canaan, but they chose to move to Egypt.
What was seen in Israel's encounter with Egypt should be seen as it relates to Adam's encounter with Satan: it was all about food with a "garnish" of emotion. Adam's and Eve's emotion was that of feeling mistreated by God (Satan's baited words "Has God really said..." elicited a selfish emotion) regarding food. At that moment, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil became an idol. Jacob's (Israel's) "emotion" was Pharoah's invitation to come be with their family member, Joseph, again, in the setting of food. At that moment, Egypt became an idol.
Satan is a deceiver. His most effective tool is to enlace his bad advice in our basic need for sustenance. Yes, we all need food, but just because a poison mushroom may taste good doesn't mean it won't kill us! God-followers are somewhat on the lookout for Satan's temptations but most are not looking in the right place. That right place is our most basic need: food. It is in our need for food and basic sustenance that Satan plants thoughts of selfishness and pride that ultimately land us in oppressive slavery to idolatry. Satan uses our basic needs to enslave us to idols.
No wonder Jesus came on the scene with profound words about our basic needs:
“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money. “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? “And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith? “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today. [Matthew 6.24-34]
The moment our basic needs become more important than our obedience to God, we are a slave to those needs - they have inadvertently but effectively become idols in our lives. Our insistence upon meeting these needs for ourselves has yielded the broad-category enslaving idols of debt, insurance, medicine and technology. In fact, religion can also be added to this list.
The story of Joseph and Egypt makes a great and popular entry-level Bible story. However, as one watches carefully for the mention of Egypt following Joseph's story, "Egypt" becomes synonymous with two things: idolatry and slavery. Imagine that! As practical as "Egypt" started off to be, it ultimately set in motion a large-scale pattern of slavery and idolatry in the history of God's people that is more prevalent today than ever before. Man's systems of debt, insurance, medicine, technology and even religion are cumulatively "the New Egypt."
Father, as Your Holy Spirit opens our eyes to see the truth of ancient "Egypt" in the Bible, may He also open our eyes to see the truth of "the New Egypt" in our day and time. May Jesus's words in Matthew 6.24-34 weigh heavily upon our hearts in conjunction with His call to give up our own way, take up our cross, and follow Him. So be it.
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