Friday, January 13, 2012

Occupy the Goshen?

After the passing of Joseph, the Jews remain in Egypt. The Israelites proliferate, which causes Pharaoh to fear them joining forces with others rebels in an uprising. By this point, the new Pharaoh no longer remembers how Joseph saved Egypt. To ease his apprehension, Pharaoh enslaves the Israelites. He demands the execution of an entire generation of Israelite boys. While the Egyptians carry out this order, one baby survives. Jochebed, the mother of Moses, sends her son down the Nile River in a basket. The princess allegedly encounters Moses, and she raises him as her own son. As Moses observes his subjects as prince of Egypt, he stumbles upon an Egyptian mercilessly beating an Israelite. Enraged, Moses murders the overseer, hoping nobody sees this ordeal. Unfortunately, Moses' sin spreads throughout Egypt. Moses escapes to Midian where he works as a shepherd. One day, Moses takes his flock into the mountains. He notices a bush engulfed in flames but hardly burning. Through this bush, God talks to Moses. God commands Moses to return to Egypt and liberate the Jewish people. Moses attempts to convince God he is not worthy of such a task, but God refuses to listen. At first, Moses retorts he is unworthy of such a divine task. He also fears the Israelites' and Pharaoh's inability to believe God sent him. Finally, Moses complains how he speaks poorly, but in all these cases God's fidelity will be with him. Aaron and Moses meet in the desert, and they begin their ordeal with Pharaoh. Instead of freeing the Israelites, Pharaoh makes the workload heavier. Here, the story of exodus breaks. Unfortunately, the Israelites are no more excited of their possible liberation than the straw they must gather which was once supplied by Pharaoh.

Moses attempts to flee from the politics of Egypt. He recognizes the Egyptian treatment of Israelites is corrupt, yet Moses refuses to reform the system, even when he is in power. Many of us try to run away from the pressures of daily life in a similar way. Some of us handle stress better than others, yet we eventually all hide an issue until it supersedes that control and insists to burst. God finds Moses regardless of his location. Then, God commands Moses to rise to the occasion of saving the Israelites Most of our problems do not receive special attention from God, but they similarly haunt us. Like Moses, we try to make excuses to avoid our stresses, but the reality of the situation hardly seems to fade. Eventually, we all must confront our anxieties. While we cower with the thought of an upcoming test, one can only throughly study to truly relieve him or herself. Whether the test goes well or not, it arrives. Likewise, a relationship that should not last forever never does, but the breakup lingers until one of the members ends the failing romantic affair. The relief that follows the solution greatly outweighs the preceding tension. Problems should not dwell within oneself, but they should be methodically resolved, creating a better situation.

In their attempts to follow God's orders, Aaron and Moses light the spark to a revolution. While problems can be fled and solved on a personal level, we also must apply the lessons taught by Moses to society. The issues of the world are not stories made up by newscasters. When many people die in a battle, those people are real. Living in one of the world's most well-endowed nations blinds a number of Americans to the troubles of the modern world. We hear about an earthquake in Haiti and forget about it two years later, yet those Haitians remain impoverished. Journalists exposed large companies of child abuse, but we continue to buy clothes from these cruel corporations. When we are informed of a problem distasteful to us, we should set out to cure it. In 2011, a group of Americans decided to take to the streets and call this country and its corporations out for their corruption. Whether the occupy movement or any other protest is right or wrong in their message, they should be applauded for their exercise of their beliefs. PHaraoh and the NYPD tried to shut down their opposing movement, but like the burning burn, these rebels' passions never fatigued. God believed in keeping promises, so the Israelites absolutely needed to be freed from bondage. When the stresses of our personal or societal lives become too heavy a burden to bear, escape is not an option. Even in the mountains of Midian, God can find us.

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