Are You Listening Mr. Biden?

 Today, at the American Thinker Andrea Widburg tells Biden, and other tyrants around the world that The World's Leaders, Including Biden, Must Learn the Lesson of Passover. Actually, the story told in Exodus has many many lessons for us. God's mercy is but one. That Yahweh is the supreme God of all the other elohim, including Pharoah is another. In leading the Israelites out of bondage to Egypt, it tells the story of God leading each of us out of bondage to sin and the devil, which prefigures the coming of Christ to reconcile us to God. Widburg adds yet another lesson for Biden and other world leaders who want to lord it over men.

Tonight, at sunset, Jews across the world will celebrate Passover, something they’ve been doing annually for around 3,500 years. The holiday commemorates the miracle (and gift) of God leading the Jews out of slavery in Egypt. This was the world’s first slave revolt and led to God’s handing down the moral laws that are the backbone of the Judeo-Christian faiths. But the Passover story also tells us something important about the nature of tyranny, and the world’s governments, from Biden on down, would do well to heed that lesson.

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Then came that fateful day when Moses, while tending his flocks, encountered a burning bush from which came the voice of God. God set Moses a task for which Moses felt painfully unqualified: Return to Egypt, free the Israelites from their bondage, and lead them to Canaan, the land promised to them in Genesis.

Despite his fears, Moses took up the task and went back to the court in which he’d been raised. He told Pharaoh to release the Israelites from slavery. Pharaoh, naturally, refused.

This refusal began the cycle of the famous ten plagues that Jews have recited at every seder since the Exodus itself:

Widburg thereupon recites the 10 plagues of Egypt. It is here where God shows his mercy. At any point, Pharoah could have cried "uncle" and let the people of Israel go. That he didn't showed him to be unconcerned about the suffering of his people as long as he was safe, and in power. Notice that the plagues become more and more serious, but Pharoah doesn't care. Finally

10. The death of the firstborn. (That Pharaoh didn’t die, incidentally, means that he was not his father’s firstborn.)

Because the Angel of Death passed over the homes of those Israelites who painted their door lintels with the blood of s specially prepared lamb, we get the holiday’s name.

Left unsaid is that Pharaoh's first born son also died. Pharaoh finally felt the consequences of his actions.

Aside from ignoring the fact that Exodus marks the first recognition in human history that slaves are people and deserve liberty, this viewpoint completely misses the profound message attached to the myriad plagues that Pharaoh willingly visited on his people: All tyrants have an almost endless capacity for tolerating others’ suffering, as long as their power remains in place.

What Pharaoh discovered with the first nine plagues is that life can go on, at least for the ruler, no matter the burdens he places on his people. Pharaoh had wine to drink when the Nile turned to blood; physicians when the plagues and boils arrived; baths, unguents, and incense when the irritating bugs settled in; stores of food when the cattle sickened and starved; and a secure palace when the skies poured down hail and fire. As long as Pharaoh’s hold on power was undiminished, he could always reconcile himself to his people’s pain.

The lesson Widburg hopes the various tyrants learn for the Passover is that ultimately God is in control. That governments are established to serve people, not to control them. Whenever a government attempts to control the people, and isn't concerned about the suffering of the people, that government has gone to the dark side, to tyranny and destruction. Christ, on that Passover some 2000 years ago showed us the way by taking on our sins, and dying for us, then rising again as the prophets had said. He set the example of the suffering servant, not of the tyrannical dictator. Are you listening Mr. Biden?