From Blessings to Burdens: A Call to Perspective

"And in that story, Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, at one point, was receiving, the Hebrew people, into his country, as blessings. If you remember what happened, there was a big famine that was foretold in Pharaoh's dream. And Pharaoh couldn't understand it. But Joseph, one of the Hebrew people, was able to interpret the dream and tell Pharaoh, Pharaoh, this dream means a big famine is coming, and we have to prepare for it. So Joseph, the Hebrew, was put in charge of preparing for the famine. And when everybody ran out of food, they could come to Egypt and be provided, by food, because of this Hebrew man, Joseph." [00:02:19]

"And then Joseph found out that his family was in need. They were hungry, too. His dad thought he was dead, but he was alive. And so, Joseph went to Pharaoh and said, hey, my family, they need a place to live. And Pharaoh said, that's great. We would love to have your family come. This is awesome. We will set a land aside for your people, and they can be shepherds. They can be shepherds in our land, and they can shepherd our animals, and they will be a huge. Blessing to us." [00:03:59]

"And so, Joseph's family, the Hebrew people, they moved into Egypt, and people were excited when they moved in, because they were shepherds, they were Joseph's family, and they were as a huge blessing to the land of Egypt. But then, something happened. The Pharaoh died. A new Pharaoh took over. New ruler. New regent. New regime. New politics. And the book of Exodus says it like this. That a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt." [00:05:19]

"He did not know him. But it wasn't that he forgot about him. It was that this new Pharaoh. This new king chose to forget about Joseph. He chose to forget about the Hebrew people. He chose to forget about the history and the blessing that the Hebrew people brought. Because when they came, they were a blessing. But something began to happen. They began to multiply. They began to have families and big families. And they brought with them their own culture, their own food, their own language, their own music, and their own culture." [00:06:21]

"And while they started out as a blessing to the Pharaoh, started to become a burden. They became scary. A threat. Because when they came, they didn't adopt to the Egyptian culture. They didn't adopt the Egyptian gods. They didn't adopt the Egyptian language. And so Pharaoh became scared that his culture and his people were going to be taken over by, by the Hebrews. And so he came up with a plan. And the plan was to enslave them. And make them work hard. And to make them work so hard that at the end of the day, they were too tired to have babies." [00:07:01]

"And so this made Pharaoh even more mad. And so then he came up with another plan. And he said, you know what? This is the plan. I'll just make a rule. I'll just tell everyone on the wall. Everybody, if you are Hebrew and you have a boy, it is now the law that you take your Hebrew boy and you throw him into the Nile. That's it. That's it. But the thing about this story is that this still happens today, where people who are blessings begin to be looked at as burdens." [00:06:32]

"In fact, it's a story that plays out in almost every nation that has ever been. In fact, it's a story that plays out in almost every nation that has ever been. And our own nation isn't immune. Our own nation has a history of welcoming immigrants and rejecting immigrants, welcoming, rejecting, seeing them as blessings. Right now in Los Angeles, we have Mexican firefighters who have come over voluntarily to help with the fires. Blessings, right? Blessings, right? Blessings." [00:07:15]

"If we look at our own lives, there may be people who are doing things for us. There may be people that we look at as burdens. Maybe some of us have been taught so much that we look at ourselves as a burden and not us. I like how this story plays out. So let's read out. You know the story. So in Exodus chapter 1, starting at the last verse there, verse 22. Pharaoh gave this order to his people. Every Hebrew. Every Hebrew boy that is born, you must throw to the Nile, but let every girl live." [00:09:23]

"Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman. She became pregnant. She gave birth to a son. And when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. Anyone know who this child is? Moses. Anyone know what Moses' mom's name is? Jacob. Jacob. Jacob. Miriam is his sister, yes. Jacob. Jacob. Yeah. But when she could hide him no longer, because babies are loud. Amen? Amen." [00:09:52]

"She got a patner's basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. And she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bed. bank of the Nile. His sister, Miriam, stood at a distance to see what would happen. Then Pharaoh's daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. She opened it, saw the baby, he was crying, and felt sorry for him." [00:10:44]

"And she knows that the Hebrew babies are supposed to be tossed in the Nile. But the Hebrew baby is crying. And she looks at this baby and doesn't see a burden. She sees. A blessing. Now children can be burdensome. Amen? I mean, you have to feed them. You have to clothe them. And they keep growing and they keep eating. They don't pay any bills. Right? They question your authority. They leave messes everywhere they go. I mean, there are a bunch of freeloaders in your house. Right?" [00:15:56]

"Jacobin was willing to look at Pharaoh's daughter, not just as an oppressor, not just as an evil person, but to look at them as a human being and she saw something in her that gave her hope. And Pharaoh's daughter saw something in this Hebrew baby boy that also changed her heart. And this is how smart Jacobin was. This was the plan. Because the minute she sees the baby, what does Miriam do? Miriam comes out like she was rehearsed. Like mom told her. Last few nights, over and over and over again." [00:17:32]