More Bricks for Pharoah

More Bricks for Pharoah
By Don Walker basileia2009@yahoo.com

A crisis, economic or military, always presents an open door for civil government to expand and centralize its power. This was certainly the case in the 1930’s, when due to the “Great Depression,” FDR centralized and expanded the federal government through government programs designed to alleviate the suffering of the nation. The results of Roosevelt’s policies are still with us today over 70 years later. If we properly understood what has taken place we would recognize that FDR “sowed the wind and we have reaped the whirlwind.” Instead, our nation for the most part appears to be oblivious to the reality of the price we have paid. Higher and higher taxes, more and more government regulations, and the erosion of personal freedom are evidence to this reality.

The thinking that has guided the economic policies of our leaders over the past eighteen months demonstrates that they have failed to learn the lessons of history regarding the preservation of freedom, and they have adopted a view of the federal government as being the “savior” of us all. Unfortunately, this thinking appears to permeate both political parties. The price of having civil government as your “savior” is the loss of personal freedom and enslavement.

The Bible presents us with a clear lesson in economics and the expansion of governmental power in Genesis 47. There we find Joseph acting as the “economic czar” for the Egyptian Pharaoh while Egypt is experiencing a severe economic crisis in the form of a famine. Joseph shrewdly gathered up all the money by selling back to the Egyptians the grain they had been taxed (Gen. 41:34, 47:14). When they ran out of money, Joseph took their livestock in exchange for grain (47:16). When all the livestock had all been sold to Pharaoh, but the famine still persisted, their land was taken in exchange (47:18-20). All authority was now centralized in the Pharaoh, who had all the money, all the livestock, and all the land, and, as a result, the people themselves. Joseph undoubtedly “bailed out” the Egyptians, but there was a price to pay. The price was freedom. Those who were once land owning farmers and ranchers were now welfare recipients living in the urban ghetto paying homage to the Pharaoh. In coming to the rescue of the people, the power of the Pharaoh was greatly expanded and centralized. The means of production (land and livestock) were completely in his hands.

The loss of private ownership of land, and its transfer of ownership to the Pharaoh, not only resulted in the enslavement of the Egyptians, but ultimately in the enslavement of the Israelites. Though the Israelites did not pay the price in Joseph’s generation, future generations did. A future Pharaoh needed cities to be built to store his great wealth and the Israelites were called up to make bricks (Exodus 1:11-14).

This was an important object lesson for God’s people. When the Israelites entered the Promised Land, after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, God had them divide the land, by tribes and by families, into privately owned plots. In addition, God commanded that no man had the right to sell or dispose of his land permanently (Lev. 25:23). This was part of the Year of Jubilee. Through this God made provision for their economic independence and for their political freedom as well, because economic dependence brings about political dependence.

The cost of an economic bail out may not be paid by the generation receiving it. But it will certainly be paid for by future generations. The price tag is a larger, centralized government that enslaves its citizens. Pharaoh will always demand more bricks.