Pharoah’s Replacement Theory

They say history doesn’t repeat but it does rhyme. The same is true for scripture. Our exact experiences aren’t found in scripture, but similar experiences are. When we make the connection between the two we grow in insight and wisdom.

This Sunday’s Old Testament reading is a story that is familiar to many of us, Moses’s birth. Exodus 1:8-2:10. This translation is the Contemporary Torah. (Jewish Publication Society, 2006)

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A new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are much too numerous for us. Let us deal shrewdly with them, so that they may not increase; otherwise in the event of war they may join our enemies in fighting against us and rise from the ground.” So they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor; and they built garrison cities for Pharaoh: Pithom and Raamses.

But the more they were oppressed, the more they increased and spread out, so that the [Egyptians] came to dread the Israelites.

The Egyptians ruthlessly imposed upon the Israelites the various labors that they made them perform. Ruthlessly they made life bitter for them with harsh labor at mortar and bricks and with all sorts of tasks in the field.

The king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, saying, “When you deliver the Hebrew women, look at the birthstool: if it is a boy, kill him; if it is a girl, let her live.” The midwives, fearing God, did not do as the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live. So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, letting the boys live?”

The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women: they are vigorous. Before the midwife can come to them, they have given birth.” And God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and increased greatly. And [God] established households for the midwives because they feared God. Then Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, “Every boy that is born you shall throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”

A certain member of the house of Levi went and took [into his household as his wife] a woman of Levi. The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw how beautiful he was, she hid him for three months. When she could hide him no longer, she got a wicker basket for him and caulked it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child into it and placed it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile. And his sister stationed herself at a distance, to learn what would befall him. The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe in the Nile, while her maidens walked along the Nile. She spied the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to fetch it. When she opened it, she saw that it was a child, a boy crying. She took pity on it and said, “This must be a Hebrew child.” Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a Hebrew nurse to suckle the child for you?” And Pharaoh’s daughter answered, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will pay your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it. WHen the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, who made him her son. SheHe named him Moses, explaining, “I drew him out of the water.”

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For many of us, this is a familiar text. When you read it, who do you most identify with? Moses? Moses’ mother? The midwives? Pharaoh’s daughter? Often we focus on the bravery of the midwives or the rescue of Moses from the Nile. We lament the bondage of the Israelites. You probably didn’t identify with Pharaoh though. Did you?

This week, as I was reading, Pharaoh’s words and actions started to rhyme with current events.

“And he [Pharaoh] said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are much too numerous for us. Let us deal shrewdly with them, so that they may not increase; otherwise in the event of war they may join our enemies in fighting against us and rise from the ground.”

“Rise from the ground” could mean “escape” ( as the NRSV translates) or it could mean ” gain ascendancy over the country.” Either way, Pharaoh’s concern is that the Israelites will not do his bidding, and may become a danger to Pharaoh’s rule.

Pharaoh’s response is to become “ruthless”. Starting with forced labor, which escalates to slavery, and finally to murder. His campaign of murder first starts with midwives and then escalates to include the entire nation.

Pharaoh’s statement is a version of a particular phenomena, currently in the US known as the Great Replacement Theory Proponents claim that people of color and immigrants are replacing white people. There are a few variations on the theme.

There is a plan to replace current voters with immigrants and people of color for electoral gain because immigrants and people of color will vote for a particular political party.

“They” are stealing jobs, stealing benefits, and so on.

White people will soon be a minority which means a loss of power.

“Jews will not replace us.”

Claims of “white genocide”. ”

There is an argument that COVID- 19 is deliberately ethnically targeted and attacks certain races disproportionately…”

Consider how rhetoric about migration on the US southern border has escalated from building a wall, to placing a floating barrier with serrated metal plates in the Rio Grande, to the claim of a presidential candidate to use deadly force “stone cold dead” against suspected drug smugglers.

This rhyme of the text with current events is more than a little unnerving. I would prefer to identify with the brave midwives who subvert Pharaoh’s order. Or Moses’s sister and mother. Even Pharaoh’s daughter. There are many brave women to admire in this story. Who doesn’t want to identify with the hero?

But if I move away from individualized thinking about the story and consider it as a story about rulers and subjects, oppressors and the oppressed, things get uncomfortable. How much are we in the United States, like the Pharaoh ruled Egypt? Before you say it, no not all of us. But if we are honest, many of us are worrying about and afraid of people who don’t look like us and people whose first language isn’t English. And our fears are encouraged, stoked even, by political figures.

The past and the present rhyme in history and in scripture. If we listen we can hear the echoes of the past. Not every story in scripture is designed to make us feel good. Some stories are there to discomfort and disturb us. The question of us then becomes, what do we do with our discomfort? Are we able to recognize the “Pharaohs” around us? Are we concerned enough about justice that we join the “midwives” of our day and time? Are we brave enough to resist Pharaoh- whoever he is- in our towns and nation? These are hard questions. But questions we need to ask ourselves.

In the Exodus story of Egypt and Israel , there is much more to come. It becomes a battle of belief between Pharaoh and Moses. Who is in charge of the world? It is a battle we would do well to think seriously about. And think whose side are we actually on?