Pharaoh, White Nationalism, and Hope
I fear what our eyes witnessed on January 6th is still just the tip of the iceberg. With each passing year, the water continues to recede, informing us of how deep and wide the iceberg of racism is in our country. It’s not just individual, it’s systemic. We can no longer use words like nationalism and supremacy as blanket statements to define the problem, we need nuanced language like privilege and fragility. Simply calling on people to not be racist is no longer enough, we need people to be anti-racist. Passivity isn’t an option to actualize a world in which all people who are created equal are treated equally. This iceberg isn’t just going to dissolve by our acts of kindness or our multiethnic churches. It needs to be chipped away at with prayerful, strategic, and consistent action on both the micro and macro levels of society.
For many, who have been on the forefront speaking out against injustice and working towards a better tomorrow, the riot and looting at the Capitol have either left them despondent or ready to take matters into their own hands. These are natural feelings in the face of such injustice. Israel encountered these feelings as they groaned in Egypt after many years of difficult labor and fell into despair and questioning God when Pharaoh made their labor more difficult (Exodus 2:23, 5:6-23). How could things possibly get better after getting worse?
Then there’s Moses, seeing the oppression of his people, took up a sword and killed a man to protect his kinsman. Though many would consider his actions noble, they resulted in him having to hide in a deserted place where he could do no further good for his people. He also was only able to save one man’s life. His actions were neither prayerful nor strategic and they inhibited his ability to be consistent until God intervened (Exodus 2:11-22).
Whether you are despondent and ready to throw in the towel, angry and ready to take up a sword, or somewhere in between, what we all need most is God’s intervention. As Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester prayed while squatting down in hopes of not being seen as rioters closed in on the Senate chamber, we need God to “reveal [His] mighty hand and heal our land.” We also need Him to help us all, especially those who stormed the Capitol, to see that this is not our land, but God’s! The fallacy that American soil belongs to them has caused their hearts to be hardened to the truth and believe that they are supreme and can do whatever they want.
What Pharaoh and White Nationalist Have In Common
The display of hardheartedness we witnessed on January 6th at the Capitol is not much different from the hardheartedness of Pharaoh we encounter in the pages of Scripture. In Exodus 1:8, we read of a new Pharoah coming into power who didn’t know that God used Joseph, an Israelite, to save his people, the Egyptians, from dying in a seven-year famine (Genesis 41). Unaware of this part of Egyptian history and in fear of an Isrealite insurrection, he oppressed the very people who sought to be a blessing to him.
The revisionist history of White Nationalism has caused their proponents to be blind to the reality that their ancestors laid claim to stolen land and that many of the privileges they experience here are the result of the oppression of native and black folks. Their hearts are hard and refuse to acknowledge these truths because to do so would make them guilty and less than superior.
Additionally, this hardheartedness is why, like Pharoah, they don’t know how to concede. With each plague, Pharaoh's heart hardened all the more (Exodus 7:22-23; 8:15,19,32; 9:7,12, 35; 10:20). Even though his defeat was inevitable, Pharaoh persisted. He refused to listen, refused to accept reality. There is no evidence to suggest voter fraud in the 2020 Presidential election. There are, like my brother Rasool Berry shared yesterday in his article, “Words Matter,” only words. Words of deception that have brought about delusions that led to what seems to be irreparable destruction. Lives were lost. Democracy is threatened.
Why We Can Have Hope
But even in the midst of such hysteria, we can have hope because just like Pharoah, White Nationalism exists under the reign and rule of a God who opposes the proud. It may seem like the demonic forces of racism are winning and that there is no light at the end of its tunnel, but the “verily verily truth” we can hold onto during these times is that we serve a God who utterly opposes the proud. Like Israel and the mother on the front pew, “He may not come when you want him, but he’ll be there right on time.”
However, we often lose hope because God’s definition of “on-time” is different than ours. The hopelessness we experience around God’s timing exists because God’s goals are often bigger than ours. Like Israel, we just want relief—now. We pray, and rightly so, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus!” But, Israel's cries for relief began long before their exodus. In Exodus 2:23-25, we read that their cries for help began after the death of the first Pharaoh. Scholars say Moses was approximately forty years at that time. However, it wouldn’t be until Moses was eighty that he would first appear before Pharaoh, and even then God delivered Israel in His time.
Now, God didn’t take his time in an “I’ll get there when I’m ready” sense, but in an “I’m doing something bigger in addition to your deliverance” one.
God’s Objectives
God’s objectives in delivering the children of Israel were three-fold:
To Fulfill His Promise: The narrator of Exodus makes this clear from the beginning. In Exodus 23:24, he writes, “And God heard their groaning; and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Issac, and with Jacob; and God saw the Israelites and God knew.” Again, we see God’s intent to fulfill His promises in His encounter with Moses at the burning bush. Four times God makes mention of His relationship and covenant with Abraham, Issac, and Jacob (Exodus 3:6,15, 16; 4:5).
To Expose Pharaoh's Heart: With the turning of each page in the first chapter of Exodus, we learn how hard Pharaoh's heart had become. Even when God brings relief from his plagues, Pharaoh's heart hardens, and when he loses his firstborn son, he still refuses to concede to the power of God. His arrogance and pride grows instead of rightfully receding.
To Reveal His Power: At the backdrop of exposing Pharaoh's hard heart, God revealed his infinite and matchless power to both the Pharaoh and his people. To Pharoah, so that he would relent and submit to His power. To his people, so that in all times, no matter what circumstances they face, they would have hope in the God that miraculously and withholding nothing delivered them from Egypt.
Christian, we have a promise from God that he will dismantle every kind of evil that exists in this world. He will usher in a new heaven and new earth. However, this isn’t just our eschatological hope, but it’s our hope for now. This is why Jesus calls us to pray that God’s kingdom would come on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10-11). We can also have hope in Him overturning the reign of racism in our country because all throughout history, even when the pages of the Bible come to an end, God has always and unequivocally opposed the proud and intervened on behalf of the oppressed. Whether it was Hilter and the Holocaust, the Crusades, or Jim Crow, God has always proven Himself to be faithful to His character and His world.
The actions we are witnessing throughout our country are a direct impact of hardened hearts, revealing the grip of nationalism and racism and the depth of depravity that exists in the hearts of humanity without Christ. But all of this exists in the backdrop of God’s power and grace. For this reason, the events at the Capitol should not only anger us, but they should also humble us.
Apart from Christ, we can all embody this same kind of hardheartedness, but praise God we serve a God who has taken out our stony hearts and given us a heart of flesh. Praise God that He knew we needed an upgrade and not just merely a repair. And praise God that we can trust God to intervene on our behalf. Things may get worse before they get better, but even then this can give us cause for more hope as we can trust that God’s power and righteousness will make it right!
– Written By Yana Jenay Conner
Bio: Yana Jenay Conner is a writer and Bible teacher who seeks help others think well about faith and culture. She is the Content Creator for Pray.March.Act. and wrote the Jude 3 Project’s curriculum, Through the Eyes of Color. You can find more of her writing at everydayyanajenay.com.