On March 17, I posted the story of my experience surrounded by a large group of young children in a chapel service in which they were enthusiastically singing about the drowning of the Egyptians in the Red Sea declaring that “all of Pharaoh’s army did the dead man’s float.”
Recently I came across a traditional Jewish commentary on this story that takes a different tone in thinking about the death of the Egyptians who were pursuing the Hebrew people as they fled from Egypt.
Jewish interpretation of the Scripture is call “midrash” (plural “midrashim”), from the verb “to investigate” or “to tell stories”. Generations of midrashim have been collected and passed down from teacher to teacher, embellishing , interpreting, and explaining the stories of the Bible. It is a rich and profound tradition of reflection on sacred text.
There is a famous ancient midrash based on Exodus 14:21-28, the story of the Israelites passing through the Red Sea and the drowning of the Egyptians.
In the midrash God hears the angels singing songs of joy and triumph after the Red Sea closes behind the fleeing Israelites, drowning all the Egyptian troops. God chastises the angels asking them
“How can you sing when my creatures (the Egyptians) are drowning in the sea?!”
This traditional Jewish comment on the story of the Exodus, acknowledges that, when anyone suffers, God suffers. God does not stand apart from anyone. God enters into the pain of the human condition. God is present when Egyptians drown just as much as when Hebrews suffer under the tyrannical lash of Egyptian slave owners.
A well known Rabbi once said,
‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.’ (Matthew 5:43,44)
When you “love your enemies” the category “enemy” disappears. The barrier between Egyptian and Hebrew dissolves. The drowning Egyptian is just as much one of God’s “creatures” as the fleeing Israelite.
I am not separate from my persecutor; we are each created equally ”b’tzelem elohim” (“in the image of God”).
My “enemy” is only my enemy because I have failed to see in him, that “image of God” which we share. The challenge my “enemy” presents to me is not to drown him in the Red Sea, but to open my heart to him, to see his suffering. Any “enemy” always represents a failure of love. Like me, my “enemy” is simply another person in pain. Like me, the person I view as my enemy is a person who, when he acts out of his pain, causes more pain in the world.
No one really wants to be my enemy. There is no joy in the suffering of another person.
After instructing his followers that they should love their enemies, Jesus went on to remind them that God
makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. (Matthew 5:45)
God sends blessings indiscriminately. For Jesus, God has no enemies. No one is excluded from the category of blessed by God. There is never a time when it is appropriate to sing and rejoice at anyone’s misfortune. Love turns “enemy” into my beloved.
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April 18, 2012 at 8:31 am
Jaqueline
God loving the Egyptians and chastising the angels did not stop God from taking strong action against them….Just as the Red Sea was parted for the Hebrews, could God not have gone ” Hang on!! those silly Egyptians, they have gone in after them…OK sea hold back a bit longer!!
Perhaps loving action does not always look ‘peaceful ‘ or ‘nice’ to us.
April 18, 2012 at 8:55 am
joan
Let’s have more midrash! Thanks Christopher for this important commentary and addressing of our dualistic interpretations which continue to divide and conquer. Instead, Love can conquer and overcome our alienation from one another. It would be wonderful if it could begin in the churches! Perhaps we need some new songs and ways of interpreting them. Martin Buber says something to the effect that if a person is singing who cannot find her voice and another sings beside her who has found his voice, together they will make harmonious music. But sometimes it is the words the disconnect that harmony. Let’s LISTEN to what the Spirit is saying to the churches and be sensitive to what the texts are teaching us today. Those “indiscriminate blessings” are waiting in the wings.
April 18, 2012 at 10:37 am
Tress
Maybe the question is not that that you love everybody whether you agree with them or not, that is not a great problem,,just tolerance !
The problem arises when the behavior of another has become violent or damaging to another in material ways. God stopped the Egyptians , because the planned violence and destruction.he did not hate them , but they had to be stopped.
So in our modern concept surely God will condone summarily stopping those who would harm their neighbour. We might still feel sorry that they have become what they are . It really brings up the question to us of our attitude towards the criminals in our society.
We stop them by incarcerating them. but prisons are full of hatred and judgement.
We excuse ourselves because we do not have a lot of say in the matter ,
So what is our answer?
The same applies to nations who have a less gentle approach to life , (from our point of view,) both .in their domestic lives and in their control and punishment of those with different views of life.
Is threatening violence , to stop violence an answer?
Perhaps it is time that” Love your enemies . Do good to them that despitefully use you’”,should be taken seriously!
April 18, 2012 at 4:02 pm
Jaqueline
taken seriously indeed!
.thinking further…….Jesus said love your enemies..and pray for them…he didn’t say that enemies did not exist… I wonder if the point is this…that even if someone is an enemy that does not let us off the hook from loving them.
I have trouble with the idea that if we love our enemies they are not longer our enemies…that is up to them. Just because someone wants to cut our throat or other horribleness, loving them won’t necessarily change their attitude to you even if yours changes to them..they may choose to be YOUR enemy still.
However we are required to be kind, patient, long-suffering, forgiving, self controlled, compassionate etc even to our enemies….
Love means that hatred and enmity no longer gives us an excuse to be inhuman.
April 18, 2012 at 10:40 am
Tress
P.s. maybe what you where saying , is that the attitudes start with what we teach our children.
April 19, 2012 at 11:59 am
Mark
I am confused by the original reference of the “drowning of the Egyptians” in Exodus 14 to whether “enemies” exist and what do we do with them. This discussion will not be complete if we forget to consider I Peter 5:8,9 which says, “…Your enemy the devil prowls around looking for someone to devour. Resist him…“ If the call to love our enemy is without understanding, the logic extends to try loving the devil who intentionally opposes God and His people. This is not what the bible teaches. Neither does Jesus appear to surrender the need to differentiate as Matt. 25:31-46 says with His coming to divide “sheep“ from “goats.“ We cannot ignore that our rebellion has given cause for Jesus to provide redemption though His death. There has been a BIG price that was paid for our redemption from our original act of rebellion. Repentence is the key needed for God`s forgiveness to complete the message of the gospel. It seems to me that we should not celebrate when people who opposed God have been punished by God. But we can sympathize with the brokenness that plague us all, and behind those who choose to act out in opposition. It should not mean that we are blind to the evil that others can bring into the world. The personal emphasis or lesson for me is how to maintain love despite acts of evil directed against me (but not to accept or overlook the evil) and to still seek the others` well-being.
April 26, 2012 at 7:01 pm
jaqueline
I came across this really interesting blog, Christopher…talks about God and Violence and war and homosexuality…from a Mennonite PoV (?) and I think a bit theological…..thought it worth passing on…
http://thinkingpacifism.net/
April 26, 2012 at 7:23 pm
Christopher Page
thank you Jaqueline. this is really lovely, thoughtful, insightful, and refreshing. such a concept – returning Jesus to our way of thinking about the Christian faith! How radical can you get?