The Value of a Brick

Text relating to the sermon at The River this Sunday is Exodus 5:4-14

 ⁴ But the king of Egypt said, “Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!” ⁵ Then Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working.”

 ⁶ That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and overseers in charge of the people: ⁷ “You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. ⁸ But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don’t reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ ⁹ Make the work harder for them so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies.”

 ¹⁰ Then the slave drivers and the overseers went out and said to the people, “This is what Pharaoh says: ‘I will not give you any more straw. ¹¹ Go and get your own straw wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced at all.’” ¹² So the people scattered all over Egypt to gather stubble to use for straw. ¹³ The slave drivers kept pressing them, saying, “Complete the work required of you for each day, just as when you had straw.” ¹⁴ And Pharaoh’s slave drivers beat the Israelite overseers they had appointed, demanding, “Why haven’t you met your quota of bricks yesterday or today, as before?” 

So... it seems that bricks were of more value to Pharaoh than people. How sad. I once worked for a person like that... very briefly thank goodness. People meant nothing to him, that is except they were a means to an end. His own end of course - which was the same end as Pharaoh's - to build wealth and influence for himself. Yuk... so glad I'm out of Egypt. Slavery sucks!

But back to my original point :-)  To this Egyptian king in the days of Moses, the Israelite people living in his country had no real value... except that together they made a very populous and efficient brick-making machine that required very little investment or overhead. That is, nothing more than some vicious slave drivers, lots of straw, huts in which to house the slaves, and enough food to keep them alive. What a deal for Pharaoh! He could build a lot of magnificent structures with that otherwise worthless group of people. As a bonus, toward the end he even made them collect their own straw with the same quotas!

But God said otherwise. His chosen people had value... not because they deserved it, and not due to their brick-making ability... but purely and simply because He said so. So, through Moses, God told Pharaoh to let His people go. And, after a well-documented bit of difficulty, Pharaoh finally caved in to God's demands and set God's people free.

Free. No longer slaves. Cared for. Watched over. Protected. Nurtured... Loved.

The Israelites had no idea what freedom looked like. They had been nothing more than a 20+ hours per day, seven days per week brick-making machine for over four hundred years!

But God didn't make people to be machines... He made people to reflect His glory. Yes, He made people to be productive... that is, to be fruitful and multiply. But more than that, He made people to exercise their freedom to regularly stop their work in order to remember their reason for living... that is, first and foremost, humans were made to relate to their God. 

How can we do that if all we ever do is make bricks?

It's tough for some of us to stop working... stop producing... stop trying to earn our way into the good graces of other people, or other gods. But from the seventh day of creation... God has made it clear that resting from our everyday kind of work is what He wants... what He commands... what He absolutely expects from us.

Somewhere in our frantic, busy lives, God expects us to rest... makes it clear that we are to prioritize a rhythm of rest from our labor. 

The biblical term for this spiritual discipline is Sabbath.

God worked six days when He created the universe and rested on the seventh day. Why? Was He tired? Was He out of breath? Was He a union member? Or was He providing a pattern for living that He wants us to follow? Hmmmmm... perhaps He actually meant us to follow a rhythm of hard work, followed by intentional rest. Perhaps when we obey His teachings, we can actually live a more joy-filled life... a more peaceful life... a more full life? A more complete life?

Well, anyway... it's something to think about. And something to discuss... this Sunday... on the (Christian) day of Sabbath... at The River (or some other place of Christ-centered worship). That is, unless you're unable to put down the mud and straw long enough to celebrate His work of redeeming us from slavery! :-)

I gotta rest now. All this blogging makes me tired!