Leaving Egypt Ministries, Obadiah D. Morris

When we read in the Book of Proverbs that it is “much better to get wisdom than gold” (Proverbs 16:16), we ought to consider that in our world of statist robbery, this is often (though maybe not strictly) a real dichotomy — a real choice that has to be made.

Choosing riches generally means forsaking God (and wisdom) to join forces with the plunderers, whether by strapping on boots for them or taking a job in their corporatist economic structure. Hence why rich men are often fools who, blinded by the shine of the gold, have no idea what is going on in the world, while God’s people down below see the scheme but are struggling to get by.

In a statist society like ours, almost everyone who is super-wealthy is to some degree a beneficiary of their system of legal plunder and privileges. We cannot agree with other political analysts that “Microsoft [is] one of the great success stories in the history of American enterprise” or that they had “grown big through market success in the land of free enterprise.” This is not a free market society, but a statist one. There are no “self-made” men in a world of subsidies, military contracts, patents, and other privileges set up by Pharaohs in order to give monetary benefits to people who will support them. The (confiscated) wealth, in our world, is generally bound up with Egypt and is used as a device for tempting men into serving Pharaohs instead of God.

Look how shamelessly true this is in a poster that I recently encountered in a small town:

Everything about this is so evil, yet it will (and does) succeed in tempting many men, especially those in rural areas (where this was found) looking for a leg-up in the world. (Two of the tear tabs with the number for Pharaoh’s “local recruiter” were already taken).

Notice the exclamation marks behind Pharaoh’s benefits and the blandness given to the life of those who have chosen dignity, morals, and wisdom over the life of luxury and service to evil.

While this wouldn’t have to be true in a world without political robbery, our highly statist society very often requires that one sell out their service to God (and wisdom) in order to obtain wealth, which is made clear in this poster that Pharaoh posted (which I tore down) to recruit the poor into his system of violently-provided benefits, where men agree to bomb children for money, bring back men who are freely traveling to the county jails, or work as one of the captors at those jails.

Men truly do choose sports cars, houses, retirements, and other earthly pleasures, over God. And they truly sell out God’s kingdom for a little more than they could obtain otherwise. They will sign up to be one of Pharaoh’s horsemen and chariot operators, or a centurion hauling off the righteous to lion’s dens, furnaces, and crosses if it means they get a Dodge Charger and a nice house.

God’s people should choose the “okay house” and “decent car,” if that’s what it comes down to. And we shouldn’t envy what these workers of iniquity have obtained. Truly, we are more blessed to see the fraud, even if it means our poverty, than to be blinded by a stack of cash. As the scripture says,

“Better it is to be of humble mind with the lowly, than to divide the spoils with the proud” (Proverbs 16:19).

We should realize how truly profound this scripture is alone, though it stands among many other exhortations to repent and turn from wickedness: If men obeyed just this one thing and wouldn’t sell out their ethics for money, there could be no Egypt. The offers of power, prestige, and prosperity to commit evils is no insignificant matter.

We’d better believe, as the proverb goes, that “better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right” (Proverbs 16:8), because having little would appear to be one of the only ways to hang on to the ethics and commandments of God to not rob or murder people.

It is indeed better to be poor than to join the political plunder system. Praise God for those men who didn’t care for “100% paid tuition!” or “retirement benefits!” when it meant selling out on God. As for the sellouts, well, “the robbery of the wicked shall destroy them; because they refuse to do judgment” (Proverbs 21:7).