Out of Egypt

Only the Incarnation can break us free from voluntary bondage | Janie B. Cheaney

Illustration by Krieg Barrie

Watching The Mummy Returns on cable over Thanksgiving weekend led me to thoughts of Egypt: not the world's first great civilization, but the most romantic—unless you happened to live there. The classic City of Man (see Augustine) was modeled on power: displays of, logistics of, worship of; all the strategies and accoutrements of keeping people in order by keeping them down. It was the House of Bondage, presided over by half-breed gods blown up to gigantic scale, served by legions of murmuring priests and gilded pharaohs who casually disposed the fates of millions.

In Egypt God's people were hatched, and later enslaved. And to Egypt God went to fetch them out.

"Has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war . . . ?" (Deuteronomy 4:34). Enslavement is easy; liberation is hard. Generations of Israelites had laid their weary heads on threadbare mattresses with nothing to look forward to the next day but more rock-dragging. Yet none thought of rebellion, because they could not draw the outlines of what it would look like. After rebellion, then what? Freedom was literally inconceivable; not even a word. In Egypt the boundaries were harsh and narrow but nonetheless distinct. Better the devil you know than the one you don't; three squares and four walls is nothing to sneeze at; don't forget the leeks and melons and garlic.