Today's Daily Lesson comes from Exodus chapter 5 verses 3 through 9 and Exodus chapter 16 verses 4 and 5:
3 Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword.” 4 But the king of Egypt said, “Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!” 5 Then Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working.” 6 That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and overseers in charge of the people: 7 “You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. 8 But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don’t reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ 9 Make the work harder for the people so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies.”
4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. 5 On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”
Labor Day is a good day to reflect on the theology of work. A good place to look for instruction on what work is to be like is the book of Exodus.
The Egyptian symbol of the pyramid was a perfect symbol of Egypt's economy. One all-powerful individual, Pharaoh, sat on top with masses of slave laborers sitting on bottom. Work in Pharaoh's Egypt was exploitative and abusive. The entire value of any person was solely related to his or her ability to work or to procreate. If one could not do one of these -- whether because of age or disability -- then that person was "worthless". It is true that Pharaoh kept his workers well fed with his fleshpots of meat, but it was only in service to the greater cause of building. Pharaoh fed the people like a farmer feeds a draft animal. For these workers were indeed like animals to Pharaoh. His demand on them was constant. "Build, build, build,"was the refrain seven days a week for 365 days a year. It is easy to imagine the life-expectancy under such a grueling machine would have been somewhere in the middle thirties. The book of Exodus is a story about God's indignation at such an exploitative system and his passionate concern for and deliverance of its victims.
But the Exodus story is not only about escape. It is also a story which tells of an alternative economy the Israelites were to learn in the wilderness and was to serve as a foundation for their nation when they came into the promised land. It was an economy based on the inherent dignity of work and it was learned through the simple gathering of the manna which God sent to them day by day in the wilderness. The perhaps most interesting thing about this miracle of manna was that though it fell from the sky as a gift from God, it didn't fall directly into the Israelites' fleshpots. They had to get out of their tents and work for it. This demonstrates the value God placed on work and echoes the work of tilling God gave Adam in the garden. It is not good for man or woman to remain idle, so God gives us work to do. This is a basic part of our being and any community which robbed of meaningful work loses not only a job but something also basic to their humanity. But workers is not all that we are, as the Israelites were under Pharaoh. We were made not only for work, but also for worship. And it was the right to worship for which Moses and the Israelites first made their petition to Pharaoh. In the new economy the Israelites were to create work would be very necessary. They would have to make the desert bloom. And in doing so, the work would be meaningful and each would enjoy the fruits of their own labor. But work would not be everything. There would be six days upon which to work and then a seventh day upon which to worship and to find rest. This day the people called Sabbath -- or holy.
The human person is a holy being, not to be exploited. And his or her work is meant to be holy also, something with dignity and meaning. And the Sabbath is a holy day, set as a reward at the end of six days of holy work.
And Labor Day . . . Labor Day is a reminder to us all that such now basic ideas did not come without struggle, whether that was the workers' struggle here in America or the Israelites' way back in Egypt land.
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