CELEBRATING

Celebrating a Feast to Yahweh in the Wilderness (Exod 5,1-6,1) A Biblical Narrative on a Labor Dispute of Israelite Slaves in Egypt

by

Jurgen Klute

This address first delivered in 1994 is translated from the German on the World Wide Web, www.amos-blaetter.de. >

1. Presenting the demand: a 3 day work break Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, "Thus saiys the Lord, the God of Israel, `Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.'" But Pharaoh said, "Who is the Lord, that I should heed his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover I will not let Israel go." Then they said, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us; let us go, we pray a three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the Lord our God lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword." But the king of Egypt said to them, "Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get to your burdens." >

2. Reaction of Pharaoh, the employer: Pressure through work consolidation And Pharaoh said, "Behold, the people of the land are now many and you make them rest from their burdens!" The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen, "You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as heretofore; let them go and gather straw for themselves. But the number of bricks which they made heretofore you shall lay upon them, you shall by no means lessen it; for they are idle; therefore they cry, `Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God'. Let heavier work be laid upon the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words." >

3. Conversion of work consolidation So the taskmasters and the foremen of the people went out and said to the people, "Thus says Pharaoh, I will not give you straw. Go yourselves, get your straw wherever you can find it; but your work will not be lessened in the least." So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. The taskmasters were urgent, saying, "Complete your work, your daily task, as when there was straw." And the foremen of the people of Israel whom Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them were beaten and were asked, "Why have you not done all your task of making bricks today, as hitherto?" >

4. Protest of Israelite foremen to Pharaoh Then the foremen of the people of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, "Why do you deal thus with your servants? No straw is given to your servants, yet they say to us `Make bricks!' And behold, your servants are beaten, but the fault is in yhour own people." But he said, "You are idel, you are idle; therefore you say, `Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.' Go now and work; for no straw shall be given you yet you shall deliver the same number of bricks." The foremen of the people of Israel saw that they were in evil plight, when they said, "You shall by no means lessen your daily number of bricks." >

5. Effects of Pharaoh's pressure: De-solidarity They met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them, as they came forth from Pharfaoh; and they said to them, "The Lord look upon you and judge, because you have made us offensive in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us." >

6. Moses' protest to Pharaoh: Yahweh's solidarity and partisanship witht he Israelite slaves Then Moses turned again to the Lord and said, "O Lord, why hast thou done evil to this people? Why didst thou ever send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he has done evil to this people and thou hast not delivered thy people at all." But the Lord said to Moses, "Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh: for with a strong hand he will send them out, yea with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land." >

In antiquity, there were societies with high division of labor. At that time employees were slaves. They made up 80% of the members of society. Where there is a high division of labor, there are dependent working people, wage-earners. Where there are dependent working persons, employees, there are also hierarchies of power, experiences of powerlessness, exploitation of dependencies, injustice and oppression and conflicts between employers and employees, slaveholders and slaves around working conditions. As antiquity is young, the battle around dignified working conditions is old. This text tells of such a struggle. It focuses on conditions in the 12th or 11th century B.C. According to the Old Testament, this was Israel's time in egyptian slavery. This narrative of a labor dispute of the Israelites with Pharaoh describe a frequent conflict at that time, as non-biblical traditions substantiate. This is the story of a labor dispute of Israelite slaves with the Pharaoh around a work break or reduction in working hours. There were no paid vacations at that time. The question was about the relation of work and celebration, work and rest. This question is still burning: Is a person only worth something when he works? Or is a person more, is a person valuable independent of his accomplishment and his labor/ According to biblical conviction, a person is worth more than his output, efficiency or performance. His worth consists simply in that he is a person. The Bible says: a person is God's image, God's co-worker in creation. To express and live this and not lose themselves in endlessly continuing work, the Israelites should break off their work and celebrate a feast to Yahweh. Celebrating in worship service and desisting from work, the Israelites should preserve their human nature. Pharaoh did not like this and insulted the Israelites as idlers in the style of contemporary rulers. Historically this group of Israelite slaves constructed egyptian suburbs. Building suburbs was a politically and economically important work which the Israelites wanted to simply interrupt, a non-market-driven demand driving up costs. This text tells of a full-blown labor dispute, a struggle of Israelite work slaves around their identity, regaining and preserving their human nature and dignified working and living conditions. Thus this text can easily be read from the perspective of a works council or staff (The writer of these lines has been engaged with unions and works councils.). What happened? How did the conflict antagonists behave? How did the conflict end? Where is Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, in this conflict? >

Moses and Aaron presented the demand for a work break to Pharaoh, their employer. They established and legitimated their demand by saying they were acting in God's commission. The goal of this demand was celebrating a worship service for the sake of the dignity of Israelite work slaves. To Pharaoh, the costs were forced up. The self-confidence and position of his slaves could change and put in question his rule and power with incalculable consequences if he yielded to the demand. So he insulted and decried the slaves as rabble and lazy. To the demand of Moses and Aaron, he reacted with counterpressure in the form of a work consolidation or rationalization. The slaves should now take over work preparations which until then were done by others. In a consistent way, Pharaoh justified the work consolidation politically. The slaves's strength and time for reflection on their situation should be cut further through heavy labor. According to verse 9, work should burden people so gravely that they are occupied and cannot turn to deceitful words. The slaves should not think but work. Whoever celebrates a feast to Yahweh for three days in the wilderness discovers that life is more than work. This worship service gives opportunity and time for meditation on the situation. This was dangerous to Pharaoh. For him, expelling these ideas from the people was imperative. In this way, work becomes an instrument of oppression. Here work is no longer the tilling and cultivating emphasized in the creation account (Gen 2,15). Here work is distorted. Parallels to the present are obvious. The threat of shifting locations is added to work consolidation (increased productivity, rationalization and so forth). The threat of unemployment is coupled with deprivation of the foundations of existence in upholding union demands. Nowadays the threat is established with practical constraints or practical necessities, not by power politics. The transformation or distortion of work consolidation occurs in a third step. It happens brutally with blows and maltreatment, destroying bodies and souls. This happens somewhat more gallantly or amorously in our contexts through rationalization and shifts in locations. In large parts of the world, it happens as viciously as in our text. Reports about abused, tortured, murdered unionists, reports about employees locked up in factories from different parts of the world testify to that brutalization. >

When the Israelite foremen complained to Pharaoh, Pharaoh mocked them as idlers who wanted to kill their time with a worship service. Moses and Aaron felt the effects. They were attacked by their own people. Responsibility for the work consolidation and the abuses was charged to them (verse 21). A de-solidarity occurs here under the pressure of Pharaoh, a process which works councils and unions know. Similar processes often happen with the introduction of reduced working time, the abolition of overtime, night shifts and weekend shifts in favor of new employees and with the closing of one or several production locations. Competition, coercion and distress are enemies of solidarity. Solidarity must be gained through hard work. Shaking solidarity is easy. In resignation and frustration, Moses turned to Yahweh his God. The God of the Old Testament is revealed here as a God in solidarity with the Israelite work slaves. This God promises them liberation from slavery. This Old Testament narrative reflects a conflict of Israelite slaves with the Pharaoh in Egypt. In the face of the power of Pharaoh and considering their own powerlessness, they succeeded in escaping the bondage of Pharaoh through God's action creating justice and salvation. This was the central experience of God of the Old Testament which pervades the whole Old Testament and through which God is characterized in the first commandment. "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods beside me" (Exod 20,2f and Deut 5,6f). The God of the Old Testament is not a God who legitimates domination and injustice but puts this in question and gives strength to overcome oppression and injustice. That is the message of the Old Testament narrative of liberation from egyptian slavery.