As my previous posts have suggested, we tend to read ourselves as the good guys when we read the Bible. The problem, though, is that we’re not always the good guys. Sometimes, we have to consider the possibility that the Biblical text is calling us out rather than comforting us.
Here’s a third way we do this: In the story of the exodus, the small nation of Israel is delivered from the oppressive hands of the Egyptians and their pharaoh. God brings them through the waters, crushing the Egyptian army and giving his people freedom.
Americans read this story and identify with the people of Israel. (To be clear, I believe the church is indeed the new Israel, but we go beyond this sometimes in our interpretation.) We see God delivering us from tough times and so God’s words to Israel ring true to us.
But what if the text is also trying to get us to examine ways in which we are like Egypt? What if we are the oppressors? (And indeed, if “we” = America, then we have literally enslaved people, and still do, in more subtle ways.)
What if we’re Pharaoh, and not Moses?