I Love Studying, and I don't think that's Weird.

I took some time today to travel over to our prayer room for some much neglected study time. Typically I set aside one day a week to dig into the Scriptures, sweep through commentaries and devotional materials, and amuse myself with ethical and sociological material such as Hauerwas' "The Peaceable Kingdom", Postman's "The Disappearance of Childhood" or Gladwell's "Outliers". I know this regimen may not seem fun or relaxing to many, but it is to me.

Sometimes little gems stick out to me for no particular reason. I was reading through some commentaries on Exodus 1 this morning, and two little things caught my attention. The first was in Ex. 1:10, which merely mentions Pharaoh's fear that Israel would multiply, or "will be added to", and they would become too numerous and strong for Egypt to continue to oppress and control. Why does this matter? Well, in verse 8 this Pharaoh is described as one who did not know of Joseph, the descendant of Abraham who brought his whole family into Egypt at the end of the Genesis narrative. That is, he did not know that originally they were guests, invited in, and that Joseph had actually saved the nation. Now the people are slaves, and Pharaoh is concerned that their number will be added to. What I did not know is that this turn of phrase - "may be added to" - is a Hebrew pun. Joseph's name means "may He add", a reference to God adding to the family of Jacob, specifically through his beloved wife Rachel who had been barren. Many of the matriarchs are described as being at various points barren, and YHWH overcomes this and grants children to them. Now, at the beginning of the Exodus, these children of formerly barren mothers have become so numerous that they threaten the powers that be. And the great power, Pharaoh, who does not know Joseph, unknowingly invokes his name and the story of God's blessing just as he is endeavouring to curse this people. Thus, in the midst of their most desperate moment, the blessing and promises of God are brought to the front by their great adversary. I think that's neat.

The other interesting nugget from this morning's study was the Hebrew word for forced labour, which was being imposed on them by the Pharaoh. This was a representation of a disordered society, of alienated work, of humiliation and slavery. It is everything that the soon-to-be created nation of Israel (described later on in Exodus) was not supposed to be. Countless times the Israelites are impressed upon to treat foreigners, widows, orphans and slaves well, because they too were those people in Egypt and were delivered by their God. In the book of Kings, however, we read that Solomon imposed the same kind of forced labour on his people, which infuriated them to such a degree that they stoned the royal official in charge of announcing the new labour programme. Taxation they could handle, but not the re-introduction of something they had been liberated from in their founding narrative.

These may be two little details, but they really make Scripture come alive for me, and give me even greater reason and desire to sit down in freezingly cold or meltingly hot little rooms to read old books. It may be strange to you, but it's fun for me!