Freeing Egypt

Moses is revered in many cultures for his work in freeing the people of Israel from Egypt. They were enslaved by the Egyptians, abused, and desperate for freedom.

The Israelites started to believe that a savior for their people would rise up within their ranks and free them from their captors. Consequently, pharaoh ordered all the children born at that time to be killed.

Moses was born at that time and should have been killed, but his mother placed Moses into a basket and sailed him down the river to where the pharaoh's daughter discovered him and then adopted him.

Moses' mom then posed as a nursemaid for pharaoh's daughter and so she was able to safely raise Moses within Pharaoh's own household. This dual motherhood situation allowed Moses to learn all the aspects of the Egyptian ruling class while simultaneously learning all about his Israeli heritage.

When Moses was older, he witnessed the abuses that Egyptians were inflicting on the Israelites. He intervened and killed a perpetrator in defense of an Israelite. At which point he fled into the wilderness, experienced a vision from God where he was commanded to go back and free the Israelites from Egyptian captivity.

Moses performed many miracles, confounding the Egyptian elite, and ultimately took all of Israel into the wilderness to eventually find the promised land where they would be able to thrive.

What isn't obvious in this story is that Egypt--epitomized by Pharaoh--was also enslaved, abused, and desperate for freedom.

Egypt was enslaved to the need to prove itself superior. It abused itself continually with the idea that it might be inferior and thus needed the Israelites to be present so that the Israelites could be treated as less-than the Egyptians. The Egyptians were desperate to be freed from this need to be better-than someone else and they used the Israelites to feed this need.

The Superiority Cycle

However, feeding the superiority-need is always temporary. A person will get a hit of satisfaction from the evidence of superiority which will persist for a while, but that "hit" will always revert. The idea of needing to be superior will always return later at which point a new "hit" will be required to feed that need. Sometimes this need is fed by the person thinking back on prior evidence of their superiority. At other times the memory is not sufficient and new evidence is needed.

When new evidence is needed the person will then look for opportunities to get that evidence and will avoid situations which could prove inferiority. In Egypt's case, this new evidence was obtained through making the Israelites do more work, or to use fewer resources, or to be humiliated in some way.

This cycle is never-ending and can never be satisfied long-term.

Smarter-Than

The Egyptians were in this cycle and attempted to satisfy it through force. Our modern society is stuck in this cycle and we attempt to satisfy it through being "smarter than" others. Even if someone were to become the "smartest" they instantly have a target on their back which others will surpass. The "smartest" must learn more information and must demonstrate their smartness at every turn. Other people can never be allies and can only be tools for proving smartness.

The rate at which knowledge is being gathered by society is exponential. Trying to fight this exponential curve is a fool's errand.

True Freedom

The only true freedom from this never-ending cycle is to not participate in the cycle. Exiting the cycle doesn't mean that we don't get smarter; It just means that the smartness we gain does not make us superior than others--we're just smarter. Exiting the cycle doesn't mean that we don't get stronger; It just means that our strength doesn't make us better than others--we're just stronger.

Freedom from the cycle is a choice we have every time we interact with another person. We rarely make the choice to step out of that cycle because we are each desperate to prove that we matter in this world. Taking away our evidence of superiority leaves us vulnerable to being the inferior beings we believe ourselves to be.

The Big Lie

But we are never inferior beings.

We are never superior beings.

We are just beings who each have infinite worth.

When we honor the truth that we each have infinite worth then we no longer need to prove ourselves superior because we no longer fear ourselves to be inferior.

Freeing Egypt

When Moses confronted Pharaoh, Moses demanded that Pharaoh release the Israelites. Moses demanded that Pharaoh eliminate the evidence of Egypt's superiority. So although he was explicitly freeing the Israelites from the grip of Egypt, Moses was also offering Pharaoh and Egypt and opportunity to be free from the superiority cycle.

In our own lives, we have the opportunity the be free of this superiority cycle. The humanity of another person calls us to treat that person like they matter; to treat them like they have infinite worth like we ourselves have infinite worth. On the flip side, our humanity calls to others to treat us likewise.

Freeing Ourselves

Our belief in the big lie keeps us terrified and afraid of honoring the humanity of others. Consequently, we are each trapped in this cycle of proving our superiority to others. But if we are willing to honor the truth and abandon the lie then we will see the truth of our own and others' worth.

The purpose of this blog is to illustrate this cycle and show people where to find the freedom we each seek. Through this blog I hope to to encourage myself and others to look at our lives and to see where we may be trying to prove our superiority so that we can see the big lie and put it aside.

May we each see this lie in our lives so that we can be free of the terror it induces and finally be free from the cycle that keeps us trapped in the lie.

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