May 5 | Exodus 1:8-11
- Pam Mann
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
DAILY READING
REFLECTION
Culture Clash
By Pam Mann
One Sunday morning in our Kids’ Church small group, we were reading in Exodus 1 about how the Israelites lived in Egypt over 400 years and the new king was not at all friendly toward the Israelites. One incredulous third grader said, “What? After 400 years, they wouldn’t be Israelites anymore. They’d be Egyptians!”
Huh. I don’t think I’d ever had that thought about this passage.
Living in the U.S., it makes sense to think that immigrants would assimilate. So, I explained how the Hebrews retained their culture and their language. They had their own land within Egypt where they kept sheep. They worshipped the one true God while the Egyptians believed in many gods. I explained that if they became Egyptians, they’d be expected to trust in Egyptian gods.
When the Kids Church group read what the new king planned to do to the newborn baby boys, students asked why just the boys. I had expected students to be aghast at the slaughter of babies, but, instead, they were more focused on the curious notion that boys appeared a bigger threat to Egypt than girls. The ancient world was very different from their modern one, wasn’t it?
Also, young believers have a different worldview with different expectations from an older believer, like me, a child of the 1950s and sixties. What a delight to study the scriptures with young people different from me. As believers, we can thank God for the richness of our diverse perspectives and backgrounds. The ancient Israelites had far bigger problems. They were the powerless minority whose belief system lay the foundation for tension, conflict, and eventually persecution, within the dominate society. The Egyptian king in Exodus 1 feared disloyalty in the Hebrews and that fear fueled his plans for genocide. Into such a deadly context, Moses was born. But God gave Moses a clever mother and a quick-thinking sister to save him from an early grave. Eventually God raised Moses up to lead the Exodus of the Hebrews out of Egypt.
I regularly feel myself at odds with our dominant culture. Perhaps you, too, have met unchurched people who think churchgoers are hateful and bigoted. For me, conversations with such folks are always sobering. After such an encounter, the persecution of believers described in Revelation seems less a distant vision and more of a real possibility in our time and place. Throughout human history, as happened in Exodus 1, it’s not uncommon for the dominant culture to despise minorities whose values are at odds with the mainstream.
1 Peter 2:9 alerts us that believers are peculiar people, uniquely chosen by God for His purposes. We’re not merely social outliers but change-agents whom God intends to employ for His purposes. At the very least, when we’re obedient to God, we will be different from the mainstream. At worst, we may be targeted as the ancient Israelites were. But fear not! God’s got this!
As my Kids Church group pointed out, God used the females (the midwives, Moses’ mom and sister) to rescue the endangered baby boys. Egypt power holders didn’t know what we know: when God is on the move, the humans involved are important, but secondary to the reality that God is in control and His purposes will not be thwarted.
PRAYER
Thank You, heavenly Father, for Your guiding hand in the lives of Your people. We thank You that all power is Yours. Our lives are in Your hands.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PAM MANN
I first joined UALC when my husband (then my fiancé) and I were college students involved in youth ministry. God has used UALC to nurture our family’s faith, even in our years outside the U.S. I’ve participated in UALC ministries with kids, art, prayer, exercise, ESL, and Bible teaching. I do all the fun church things.