Our Unfortunate Possessive NAture

Photo by Shelby Mathis in Terceira Island, Azores archipelago.

The Egyptians feared getting taken over by Israelites. "They ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their life bitter with hard service." They were threatened by the foreigner living in their land.

How often does this happen? Those established in a land feel threatened by newcomers, fearing they will take over resources, governance and culture.

This reveals a lack of trust in any authority above, placing all dependance on humanity to determine order and way. If there is no authority above, no sovereign leader allowing the flux of people groups to migrate, than we live in a dog-eat-dog world, fighting for land, water, rights, cultural norms and order.

The Egyptians in the Old Testament time, must have not believed in anything above their own power. They had to take matters in their own hands, so they inflicted "bitter and hard service," upon the Israelites living in their land, "mortar and brick," "in all kinds of work in the field."

"In all their work," the Egyptians "ruthlessly" made the Israelites "work as slaves."

This threat of people groups, moving in on what is claimed to be "mine" has been tirelessly repeated long before Christ and even to the present days after.

The Hutus and Tutsis, threatened by the authority of one another, were ordered to obliterate "the other" by political mandate, resulting in one of the bloodiest genocides known to man.

The Native Americans, the first to occupy and establish America as we know today, quickly dwindled in population due to European imperialistic reign. Still today, what is left of the Native American population, struggle to keep what is theirs, but hold on to the pride of their culture and roots. 

The Palestinians resisted Israelites coming into their homeland, taking over their land and oppressing their resources and governance. The Israelites continue to fight for their dominance in what they believe to be theirs. 

It is almost as if the more threatened a people group feels, the more desperate the fight for belonging and identity prevails.

We tie ourselves to what we own, where we live, what our culture and values are. We see it as the substance to our existence. Even as a current example, families threatened by the recent hurricanes were urged to leave their home for the sake of their lives, refused, leaving their home and belongings was like leaving a part of their identity behind, and that was out of the question. 

Back to the Old Testament Exodus, the Egyptian King took the oppression of Israelites a step further, he advised the midwives to kill the son's of the Hebrews, "cast out into the Nile," after they entered the world. 

The threat of an ever producing people group existing in their land was too much.

The idea of stewardship is brought to question in this inherent human mentality. To exercise oppression, murder, genocide and ethnic war in extreme manifestation of dominion, displays the powerful association the objects and entities within our possession have over our identity.

Not everyone believes in a higher authority, so what we have in our possession, only makes sense to be fully ours. Therefore, the threat, whether by natural disaster or human supremacy, over our possessions and associations to our being, would be fiercely intimidating.

But, if we do consider a higher authority, then our steps on earth and possessions we gain over time, would be rendered under the full authority of the God above us, and we would merely be considered managers of such possessions. 

Our identity would be less tied to the resources, cultural practices and governance, creating a faith in a higher dominance over these entities. So the threat of the loss or destruction of these ideas would be less intimidating. 

It's easy to say, if we all believed in a higher power, or a reigning captain of our livelihood and well being, then we would see the end to war. Stewardship, and the surrender of what we consider to be "ours" could change our perspective on what we are willing to share, but it is far stretched to believe our innate behaviors would never kick in, giving way to selfish possession and revolt against threatening supremacy. 

Thankfully, God of the Old Testament, delivered Israelites out of the threshold of slavery the Egyptians inflicted upon them by literally holding back raging currents of water for the passing of their delivery into the Promised Land. 

The problem lied in human nature, in that while the Israelites were being rescued, they grumbled and rebelled the entire way, as if to refuse the freedom and instead, demand their "entitled rights."

Even after passing through to the other side, from slavery to freedom, they still didn't quite understand where they had been, their need for rescue, nor the acknowledgment of even being free. Despite miraculous sovereignty over threatening forces working against their delivery, they eventually rested in the freedom of slavery, living like a captive, still possessing a sense of ownership of the land they called home and the life they called their own.

Exodus 1 ​