Extras
This week's study is on Exodus 12:29-30:
These verses are theologically challenging. How do you explain how our good, faithful, loving God went on a killing spree in one of the most advanced nations in the world, leaving no household untouched, just to get a bunch of church people's passports approved? And yet it happened.
Normally people only talk about it from Israel's perspective. "We had great food but no social justice, and then a bunch of stuff happened to people we don't care about, and the seas parted to get us to where we are now." In their story, the Egyptians are just extras, like the guys in red shirts in Star Trek. This is how we usually talk about this story.
But what about the Egyptians? How would you like to live your life, doing your best to do the right thing, working long hours, only to find out you're just an extra in someone else's story? And not just an extra, but the guy whose beloved son, or father, or brother gets tragically killed for no reason? You didn't vote to deny the Hebrews their rights, or buy cheap bricks made by slave labour, or profit from stocks sold by Pharaoh as part of your retirement plan. You're just a guy trying to get by.
Nobody thinks about the Egyptians. And yet they suffered immensely in order for God's plan to move forward. It would take an incredible amount of theological contortionism to get the mother of one of those kids to think it was something heroic, let alone something that people would celebrate every year. But people try to do it anyway.
What happened was horrible, but when it came down to it the Egyptians were just extras. They didn't know God or participate willingly in his plan. They had no more agency in what happened to them than the passover lamb did in his.
That's something we're very lucky to be able to avoid as Christians. God includes us knowingly in his plan. Even if bad things happen to us, we're not extras. Our story doesn't end in tragedy. We have a direct line to God himself, and our lives continue in eternity even after our death.
Be thankful that even tragedy is not a lasting tragedy for us. That we have a relationship with God and more in common with the Hebrews than their hapless hosts. When Jesus died for us, a willing sacrifice, not a helpless victim, he made each of us someone important for eternity.
At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.
These verses are theologically challenging. How do you explain how our good, faithful, loving God went on a killing spree in one of the most advanced nations in the world, leaving no household untouched, just to get a bunch of church people's passports approved? And yet it happened.
Normally people only talk about it from Israel's perspective. "We had great food but no social justice, and then a bunch of stuff happened to people we don't care about, and the seas parted to get us to where we are now." In their story, the Egyptians are just extras, like the guys in red shirts in Star Trek. This is how we usually talk about this story.
But what about the Egyptians? How would you like to live your life, doing your best to do the right thing, working long hours, only to find out you're just an extra in someone else's story? And not just an extra, but the guy whose beloved son, or father, or brother gets tragically killed for no reason? You didn't vote to deny the Hebrews their rights, or buy cheap bricks made by slave labour, or profit from stocks sold by Pharaoh as part of your retirement plan. You're just a guy trying to get by.
Nobody thinks about the Egyptians. And yet they suffered immensely in order for God's plan to move forward. It would take an incredible amount of theological contortionism to get the mother of one of those kids to think it was something heroic, let alone something that people would celebrate every year. But people try to do it anyway.
What happened was horrible, but when it came down to it the Egyptians were just extras. They didn't know God or participate willingly in his plan. They had no more agency in what happened to them than the passover lamb did in his.
That's something we're very lucky to be able to avoid as Christians. God includes us knowingly in his plan. Even if bad things happen to us, we're not extras. Our story doesn't end in tragedy. We have a direct line to God himself, and our lives continue in eternity even after our death.
Be thankful that even tragedy is not a lasting tragedy for us. That we have a relationship with God and more in common with the Hebrews than their hapless hosts. When Jesus died for us, a willing sacrifice, not a helpless victim, he made each of us someone important for eternity.
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