The More They Multiplied

What Fear Makes Us Do to Other People

But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread . . .

— Exodus 1

Pharaoh had a problem.

Or at least he thought he did.

The Hebrews living in Egypt were becoming numerous. A new Pharaoh had arisen who did not remember Joseph, and he looked around at this growing population and became afraid. What if they became even more numerous? What if war came? What if they joined Egypt's enemies?

Those fears may even have seemed reasonable to him.

What followed was not.

Pharaoh began treating an entire population of people according to what he feared they might someday do. He subjected them to forced labor. When that didn't solve the problem, the oppression became worse. Eventually he ordered Hebrew baby boys killed.

And then comes this remarkable sentence:

“But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread.”

Everything Pharaoh did to make his problem smaller made it bigger.

There may be something worth noticing there.

Human beings have an unfortunate tendency, when frightened by the growing influence of people unlike ourselves, to start wondering how their influence might be reduced. How do we keep them from taking over? How do we keep them from voting? How do we keep them out of our institutions? How do we make sure our people remain in control?

That temptation isn't confined to one political persuasion. We can become remarkably creative once we've convinced ourselves that another group of human beings represents an existential threat.

But perhaps Pharaoh demonstrates the folly of the whole enterprise.

What did he imagine would happen when he made the Hebrews' lives miserable? Did he think they would become more loyal to Egypt? Did he expect people treated as dangerous outsiders eventually to say, “You know, Pharaoh was right about us all along”?

What if he had done the opposite?

What if Egypt had remained the kind of place Joseph once helped it become—a place where Hebrews and Egyptians could live securely alongside one another? What if Pharaoh had looked upon this growing population and thought, not How do I stop them?, but How do I make sure these people flourish here too?

The story might have been very different.

And I don't have to be Pharaoh to make his mistake.

I can do it every time I begin thinking of people primarily as members of a threatening group. Conservative. Progressive. MAGA. Woke. Immigrant. Foreigner. Fundamentalist. Atheist. Whatever label makes it easier for me to stop seeing the individual person.

This doesn't mean political differences aren't real. It doesn't mean countries shouldn't have laws or borders, or that disagreements about public policy don't matter. That's another discussion.

This one is about what I do with the human being who is already standing in front of me.

Do I want that person diminished because I fear what people like him might do? Do I ridicule her because people like her seem to be gaining influence? Do I secretly enjoy watching somebody on the other side lose a job, an election, a platform, a reputation or a place at the table?

Or do I show up?

The last few Reflectionaries have kept bringing me back to that question. Search for the sheep. Teach with utmost patience. Make peace instead of merely keeping it. And now Pharaoh provides the negative example: don't allow fear to persuade you that the solution is somehow to have fewer of those people around.

Because the Kingdom of God gives us an entirely different way of looking at a growing population of people we believe are lost.

It's an opportunity.

More people to know. More people to serve. More people to welcome into our homes and communities. More people to listen to. More people to whom we can show the love of Christ. And, very possibly, more people from whom we have something to learn ourselves.

Pharaoh looked at the Hebrews and saw numbers.

God saw people.

Perhaps that's where the reflection needs to begin.

When I find myself becoming alarmed about how many of “them” there seem to be, I might stop worrying for a moment about how to make their side smaller.

And start asking how I can make my table bigger.