Oh, My How Times Change!

As Passover approaches let us consider Egypt of three millennia ago. The government was headed by a hereditary monarch whom we know as the Pharoah. One particular Pharoah had a fateful confrontation with some Hebrews named Moses and Aaron who were in turn speaking as directed by G-d. G-d wanted the Hebrew people to be set free from bondage in Egypt so that they could live in a right relationship with Him and be free of Egyptian control.

This Egyptian king was strongly opposed to letting his slaves go free and leave the country. We read that Pharoah strengthened his heart and that G-d also gave him strength, in effect telling him, “You want to play this game with Me? You will end up winning a prize that you won’t like.”

Pharoah had some others on his team. We could think of them as his bureaucrats and experts in charge of various parts of his government and society. Pharoah’s response to Moses and Aaron was to make things much worse for the slave laborers who were making bricks; they needed straw to mix into the mud bricks, similar to adobe used in the American Southwest. Without the straw as a binder, the bricks would fall apart upon drying. The Hebrews complained to Moses, blaming him for their new troubles; this was likely Pharoah’s intention. Pharoah and Company seemed to be winning. G-d reassures Moses that things will turn out well.

Aaron’s staff becomes a snake, Pharoah’s men make their staffs into snakes, and Aaron’s staff eats the staffs of Pharoah’s men. The king is not impressed and remains stubborn.

From our vantage point three millennia later, we can see the humor that Pharoah obviously missed in the next couple of events. The waters of Egypt become blood and the fish die.  The only thing that Pharoah’s officials can do in response is to make more polluted water. The same pattern happens with the plague of frogs; Pharoah’s guys provide just what the Egyptians needed, even more frogs!  Were these the first to say, “We’re from the government; we are here to help”?

The plague of lice convinced Pharoah’s magic men that what was happening exceeded their abilities; from these numerous but quite small creatures, they recognized that G-d was the One controlling events. By way of contrast the king said that he had created the Nile and himself. (Ezekiel 29;3). Those of us who have read at least the story so far can easily recognize the error of this ancient Egyptian king’s claim. 

This writer realizes that some who read this may not agree that we live in a universe that has a Creator. Therefore, such a person may not understand what is implied in the understanding that there is a Creator of all that exists. Cosmologists who have studied light from the universe’s most distant visible parts tell us that about 13.7 billion years ago there was a “Big Bang,” which is when time and space, matter and energy all began.This writer understands that The Creator, unlike all else, is therefore, not contingent upon anything or anyone else in the universe; He alone got the whole thing going. All else, non-living stuff, plants, animals, and humans (the only creatures who have use of complex symbolic language) are all contingent upon G-d, the Creator.

It seems to this writer that a lack of understanding of the contingent nature of the created world is at the root of much that ills our society just as it was for the Pharoah. There are many who believe that saying something is true makes it true, that truth and reality are contingent upon their utterances. Often the things these people, who claim to be highly educated say, are things clearly the opposite of the words they utter. Over three thousand years ago, G-d told us from Mt. Sinai not to murder anyone. All five books of the Torah include the death penalty for murder, and it is never approved in the remainder of the Tanach (Hebrew Bible). We have rabbinic statements from the Rambam in the Mishneh Torah, Rabbi Joseph  Soloveitchik, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, and many others who agree that the killing of an unborn baby, except in the very rare case of needing to save the mother’s life, is unquestionably murder.  The claim of those who call on demand killing “health care”absolutely contradicts reality, especially for the baby involved.  

For those who have even a passing familiarity with the Tanach, the claims that there are somehow multiple “genders” is equally denied by reality. Gender was originally a linguistic term. Many languages have distinctions among classes of words that are termed masculine, feminine, and neuter. None of these terms are exclusively related to human sexuality; a man may live in a casa, fem. singular in Spanish, and a woman may wear a sombrero, masc. singular in Spanish.  

In recent years we have been told rather loudly that it is possible to at will change one’s “gender” by the use of medications and mutilating surgery; in this brave new world there are supposedly at least ten, perhaps scores, and even maybe hundreds of newly discovered and rather ill-defined “genders.” Until recently, the psychologists’ Diagnostic and Statistical Manual classified this sort of thing as evidence of mental illness. It was also quite rare, and in the vast majority of cases either outgrown or successfully treated by counseling.

Now, however, this has gained a political/ideological constituency, and in more than a few environments it can be dangerous to one’s education, employment, and even physical safety to say that one cannot change one’s sex/gender at will. Sex is actually determined at conception by one’s DNA. There are a few who are born with anomalies, sexual and otherwise; this does not invalidate the truth that normative development is normal. As stated above we humans, kings or commoners, do not have the power to alter reality by our utterances.

This writer sees a direct connection between the celebration of the killing of unborn babies and this sterilization of children and adults by “transitioning” from one sex to the other. These are two parts of the same anti-human ideology. As Biblical faith and understanding have diminished, pagan-like idolatry has increased, and Western Civilization has declined. The resulting declining and aging population will likely result in these “educated” ideologues winning a prize they will not like when there is a lack of money to pay their pensions and people to care for them in old age. More on this in another essay.

Don Belding, OBM