Words matter. What we say and how we say it shapes us and can be used in harmful ways, leading us down a path toward actions that, in our more sane moments, we would recognize as evil. When rhetoric is amplified and outlandish statements become common, we are treading close to dangerous territory. When a leader or person of influence uses these words to serve deleterious purposes, it's time to beware.
The Book of Exodus opens with a classic step-by-step progression toward the genocidal policy of Pharaoh against the Hebrews that the Egyptian king would implement. It is striking in part because once you start to read the opening verses of Exodus the strategy and its implementation become so obvious. Let me sketch what I see in these first verses of Exodus.
The first verses of Exodus (1:1-7) note the remarkable growth of the Israelites in Egypt. The book of Genesis tells us that the family of Jacob had entered Egypt in response to a famine throughout the region. In other words, Jacob and his family were refugees in search of food in order to survive. At first, because of Joseph’s skills and success, the Israelites were welcomed.
But ominous storm clouds begin to appear when in vs 8 we read, “Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.” The fact that this new king “did not know Joseph” raises an immediate problem. It suggests a distance from Joseph and his descendants and ignorance about what they had contributed to Egypt. Pharaoh's lack of understanding portends things to come.
Out of the distance and ignorance between Pharaoh and the Israelites arises the irrational fear of the these non-Egyptian residents in the land. In the next few verses we can see the step-by-step strategy to create suspicion about the Israelites in the minds of the Egyptians who are identified as Pharaoh’s “people.”
The first step toward genocide is to identify a group within the population as different, as outsiders, as not like “us.” Creating an intense perception of the difference between “them” and “us” is critical to the strategy. In this case they might be identifiable as ethnically different from the Egyptians. A little later Pharaoh's rhetoric begins to describe the minority population using a pejorative term.
Next, Pharaoh’s propaganda machine begins to kick into action. First, suspicion about the Israelites is created by the claim that “they” are more numerous and more powerful than “we” are (vs 9). On the face of it, this cannot be true. For if the Israelites were truly more numerous and more powerful than the Egyptians and posed an actual threat, it would be too late for Pharaoh to take action. But with Pharaoh’s propaganda, it doesn’t really matter whether this is true or not; it’s enough that the impression of danger is created. Propaganda works like that. Just keep repeating it and it will become "true."
It’s possible that Pharaoh’s propaganda identified the Israelites as the ancient equivalent of “rapists, drug-dealers, and murderers.” Pharaoh’s propaganda may well have described the Israelite population as sexually overactive or aberrant (a common accusation made against those defined as “other”) since their numbers kept growing. He may even have categorized them as less than human, perhaps even as “animals.” Every conceivable problem in Egypt was blamed upon those who are “other.”
Next, a national security threat is identified. Pharaoh suggests that unless the Israelites are controlled they might side with an enemy and become a fifth column--the enemy within. “They” might fight against “us.” What are we going to do with this Israelite population? In the name of national security almost anything is justified.
But the fraudulent national security threat is exposed when Pharaoh muses that the Israelites might escape from the land (vs 10). Oddly, Pharaoh’s real concern is revealed here, for the Israelites provide the cheap labour that is the foundation of the Egyptian economy. The real threat is not to national security, but rather the loss of the cheap slave labour to keep Pharaoh and those around him comfortable in their lifestyle. The Israelites were forced to work in the fields and in Pharaoh's construction projects. Without them, Egypt would grind to a halt.
Pharaoh’s propaganda thus provides the basis for the enslavement of the Israelites. This third step is presented as a necessary strategy to deal with the proclaimed threats posed by the Israelites. The biblical writer is constrained but frighteningly clear in his description of the severity of the conditions imposed upon the Israelites. He talks about “oppression”; he goes on to say that the Egyptians “made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labour (v 14).” As if that is not enough, the writer goes on to comment, “The Egyptians were ruthless in all the tasks they imposed on the Israelites.”
Fourthly, in verses 15-21 Pharaoh’s strategy moves on to the next stage and is marked in the story by a change in terminology. No longer are the descendants referred to as "Israelites"; now they become "Hebrews." From our vantage point the term Hebrew is largely an ethnic term--and to some extent it has this ethnic connotation in the narrative. But it also has echoes of an economic or social label as well. Hebrews are the foreign workers, the lower-class, the poor, the transient and the frightening classes. Not only are they "other" and not "us," but they are dangerous! Pharaoh has now tapped into the fears of his own people. He doesn't quell them; he stokes them. That leads to Pharaoh's next escalation as he insists that Hebrew male infants be killed at birth.
Of course, Pharaoh—impressed with his own importance and drunk with his power--is a dolt. No right-thinking tyrant would try to implement his plan to have Hebrew baby boys murdered by enlisting the help of two Hebrew midwives. But Pharaoh does! It seems as though Pharaoh is so convinced of his own power and his ability to intimidate two lowly Hebrew midwives that he assumes that they will follow his orders. But even the oppressed who have no power find ways to resist the murderous commands of a genocidal tyrant. The Hebrew midwives whose names are recorded in Exodus outsmart the powerful Pharaoh who remains unnamed. When summoned to appear before Pharaoh, Shiphrah and Puah even make a mockery of Pharaoh’s command by suggesting that the Hebrew women are more vigorous than the pampered Egyptian women and are therefore giving birth even before the midwives arrive. And the shock is that Pharaoh doesn’t even recognize they are laughing at him!
However, the relief the Hebrews receive from Pharaoh’s first command to murder Hebrew boys is only temporary because in Exodus 1:22 he commands “all his people” to throw every boy born to Hebrew parents into the Nile River to drown. All of Egypt has now been enlisted in Pharaoh’s plan. They’ve seen the threat created by Pharaoh. They have bought into his propaganda. They have seen that lesser strategies have not worked. So now Pharaoh’s genocidal plan is complete.
What is most frightening about this sequence of events is the subtle ways in which Pharaoh has been able to implement his strategy and to enlist his own people in the execution of the plan. Even well-meaning Egyptians would have been co-opted by Pharaoh, deceived into viewing the Hebrews as a threat to Egypt. It would have been difficult for the Egyptian population to tell the difference between the facts and Pharaoh’s “truth.” The road to genocidal policies works like that. Defining some group as “other than us” opens the door. We can blame them for all the ills of our society. You name it, they're the source of the problem. We don’t know these "others" so we lose sight of their humanity--our shared humanity. We can begin to view them as sub-human, as “animals” or as insects that "infest" our land. As our language strips those who are “other” of their humanity, all things become permissible. Since they are a threat to our national security or to our economic well-being, we need to do something about them. Animals need to be controlled, kept out; infestations have to be stamped out. Once that perception takes hold, we are not far from violence, oppression, and even genocide—often executed in the name of “law and order.”
Unfortunately, the story of Israel’s harsh experience in Egypt is not uncommon. It happens over and over again. That's what is so frightening. In the middle of this process, it's sometimes hard to sift fact from fiction. But reading Exodus carefully should help us to shine a light on the darkness of our fears that feed our perceptions of others. If not, travelling down this path leads only to one outcome.