Leaving Egypt Ministries, Obadiah D. Morris 

Before we can even begin to talk about how to fix our problems, i.e., our current circumstance of living in captivity to political rulers because we disobeyed God, we must first acknowledge that they exist. A major hurdle for us is that many of our people don’t even see the system of Egyptian slavery that we live under. They have, with the help of state propagandists to tempt them into the sinful fallacies of statism, lived under innumerable delusions: “This is a free country” — “This is a free market economy” — “Police are heroes that keep the public safe” — “Our military keeps us free and pays the ultimate sacrifices for us” — “Without the government safety regulations we’d be getting poisoned” — “If you don’t vote you can’t complain” — etcetera, etcetera. The list of common statist slogans never ends, and the new ones that arise are more mind-boggling and baffling than the old ones.  

One problem facing men is that you can’t get out of Egypt if you don’t even realize you’re living in it. If men cannot even see their chains, they’ll never even start thinking how they got enslaved in the first place. Seeing them, to be sure, is not good enough. Probably the majority of the generation called “Baby Boomers,” if they even see anything wrong with our world at all, might say something like “the problem with our world is that kids don’t sing the national anthem every day anymore,” that “people today don’t respect the flag like we used to,” or “back in my day we always stood for the anthem and put our hands over our hearts.” Many people who sense that something is wrong also have no idea what even happened, and give some false cause like the lack of patriotism as the source. If they go and try to read some secular source, they get even deeper in the hole and run into some conservative commentator telling them that something like “gutting military spending” is the issue.

But it’s often even worse than not seeing the slavery. Many men positively praise the slave-masters, doing things like singing “national anthems” rather than godly songs about the destruction of statism, or believe that their favorite politician is going to make things great again. Many men love their chains.

Fooled by all forms of statism

Though the rampant and unashamed state-worshiping of prior generations (Boomers) may happily be in decline, many have probably taken on more apathetic and nihilistic views instead of looking toward God’s word as a solution for our social problems, or have fallen for different variations on the scheme (“democratic socialism”) even if they are discontented with the current one. Since most men get their ideas from other men instead of the word of God, they most often buy into the vain philosophy of statism in one of its many renditions (republicanism, democracy, socialism, communism, etc). Though some secular libertarian theorists have arrived at more or less this same conclusion that we’re living in captivity to tyrants who operate by claiming to be representatives of “we the people” and dosing them with enough propaganda to make them believe it, this is the exception and not the rule. Most men, getting their ideas from the world, arrive at the statist philosophies of democracy, socialism, or some other brand of the same idea (in principle) of political violence.

The best way to realize the Egyptian system we’re living under is to fall back on the word of God, who knew about it all along. As a virtual political-economic textbook, the scriptures are more or less one giant lesson in how to avoid slave societies or how to surely bring one upon yourself — whichever you so choose. Biblical praxeology—the theological laws of cause and effect—teaches us precisely how these things come about: When men abandon God and fall for the false god systems of human government in His place, they find themselves living in a violent and evil prison society where a ruling elite seeks to steal, kill, and destroy everything around them. This is what God promises will happen every time (1 Samuel 8).

How did we get here?

It’s no mystery to a discerning student of the scriptures how we ended up in a society where we’re plundered by men who call themselves the “government.” Our political captivity might be summed up short and sweetly: “They have forsaken the LORD” (Isaiah 1:4). This is what God’s holy word is all about: Turn away from God and His loving care, and expect to be ruled by false gods who don’t care about you. In other words, if you trust in “police” and “military” to keep you safe and free rather than the Lord God, you will find yourself living in political slavery, all while you thought (mistakenly) that this (statism) was the means of avoiding it. We can obey God, in which case “the LORD will cause the enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you” (Deuteronomy 28:7), or we can give up on God and trust in state force, in which case “the LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies” (28:25).

But no one wanted to obey the word of God, that trusting men who call themselves the “government” is a fatal choice. They bought into the lies of statism, that “without a State we would be ruled by the Chinese,” when the precise way of being ruled by men is to trust in them to “protect” you. But no one wanted to believe God that, if we did trust in men, “the LORD will return you to Egypt” (28:65). 

In short, we got to where we are today namely by turning away from God. This is how men get enslaved. If the Lord is not our King, then men will happily stand in His place. As William Penn said, pretty much summing up the whole lesson of the scriptures, “Men who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants.” Amen. If God condensed His word into one sentence, I have no doubt it would read something like this.

Any people who turn away from God, which necessarily means turning to human rulers for their “salvation,” should not be surprised to find themselves in a police state society that threatens at any time to drag them out of their vehicles, beat them up, shoot them, haul them off to jails, invade their houses, or charge them with bogus “crimes.” They should not be surprised that an enormous army is built that siphons off trillions of dollars of resources from the private economy to the State every year to fund this great evil, while everyone else goes without, becomes homeless, or starves. They should not be surprised that billions of dollars of our stolen property are sent overseas to foreign regimes or terrorist groups, as men are today in their sudden outrage of the U.S. government funding various foreign states “instead of taking care of its own people like it should.”

Statism and slavery

This issue isn’t complicated at all. Men sought to be ruled by men rather than to have God as their King, and this is why we’re where we are today, living under their evils. Our people chose man-kings as their gods over God. And this was the choice. As God said expressly,

“They have rejected Me as their king, just as they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking Me and serving other gods” (I Samuel 8:7-8).

Our people don’t trust in God as their lawmaker, judge, and king (Isaiah 33:22). Instead, they tell us that we require congressmen, lawmakers, government courthouses, government police monopolies, government militaries, etc., to have justice and security — all which are funded through theft and coercion and supported psychologically through lies and propaganda. We got this system because “the people refused to listen” to God’s warning against setting these systems up. Men refused to hear God’s counsel that statism means slavery and an abandonment of the Lord.

“‘No,’ they said, ‘We must have a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to judge us, to go out before us, and to fight our battles'” (1 Samuel 8:19).

They say the same thing today. ‘We need the US military to go before us, fight our battles, and keep us free.’ They do not trust in the Lord to protect them from their enemies, and even confine God to some merely “spiritual” role when God clearly tells us that He wants to be (and is) our protector, too. As we can see, the typical statist reply that ‘without the government, we wouldn’t have X’ is not just an economic fallacy; it’s downright sinful and evil and based wholly on the desertion of God and faithlessness toward His word. God expects us to rely on him for protection from enemies just as much as anything else, if not more. God doesn’t suddenly drop out of the picture when it comes to protection from enemies, economic theory, or the legal system men ought to have, in which case a “government” is suddenly needed to extort us for trillions of dollars a year to fight off enemies; this is the very thing that is a turning-away from God and His offer. 

God’s guarantee that statism is evil

None of these things we’re experiencing today should be a surprise. They’re precisely the effects of setting up these statist systems, which are fully done in defiance of God’s word. God warned us that if we turned away from Him and asked for man-kings, we should expect to live in a plunder society of taxes, property theft, conscription, war, and general slavery — because, in fact, He will assure we get what we asked for as punishment for this great sin. 

“This will be the manner of the king who will reign over you: He will take your sons and appoint them to his own chariots and horses, to run in front of his chariots. He will appoint some for himself as commanders of thousands and of fifties, and others to plow his ground, to reap his harvest, to make his weapons of war, and to equip his chariots. And he will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his servants. He will take a tenth of your grain and grape harvest and give it to his officials and servants. And he will take your menservants and maidservants and your best cattle and donkeys and put them to his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes, you will beg for relief from the king you have chosen, but the LORD will not answer you on that day” (1 Samuel 8:11-18). 

But this is how stupid most people are. They are essentially asking for these things, and yet don’t see why or how to turn back. Statists (the ones who are fooled into supporting these systems rather than the ones doing the fooling) are unwitting gluttons for punishment. As Isaiah questioned, “Why do you want more beatings? Why do you keep rebelling? Your head has a massive wound, and your whole heart is afflicted” (Isaiah 1:5). As long as people fail to see all this, we will be ruled by men. As the prophet said, “My people are gone into captivity because they have no knowledge” (Isaiah 5:13).

Repentance, God’s mercy, and getting out of Egypt

So how do we get out of this mess? Are we too far gone? According to God, it’s never too late to turn back to Him and away from the systems of men. We need to get back to fearing God, which means trusting in His protection, rather than fearing governments and trusting in their false protection. What we need to do is get right with the Lord again, which entails exposing these plunder systems for what they are and taking part in them no more. As the prophet tells the people of his day, 

“Wash and cleanse yourselves. Remove your evil deeds from My sight. Stop doing evil! Learn to do right; seek justice and correct the oppressor. Defend the fatherless and plead the case of the widow” (Isaiah 1:16-17). 

While we surely face—this is a law of God—more political schemes, more shortages of goods, rising prices, wars, and even famines, labor camps, and mass genocides, so long as we continue on this path of supporting the false god that is the State, God’s mercy has it that He is willing to forgive us of these sins and help us to avoid these things. 

“‘Come now, let us reason together,’ says the LORD. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best of the land. But if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.’ For the mouth of the LORD has spoken” (Isaiah 1:18-20).

If you like eating food, you’d better obey God, because governments bring famines. But if you can’t come around to listening to God and His word, expect to be devoured by the sword — expect that your land will be filled with police, soldiers, politicians, bureaucrats, lawyers, and multitudes of other agents of Pharaoh seeking to rob you for all your worth or put you in a cage to satisfy their power lust. 

God offers us a restoration of our society, away from the path of statism and socialism that men have chosen in their idolatry, if only we would turn back to the Lord and His ways. He will get rid of the man-kings, the alphabet agencies, the central bankers, and all the rest of the plunderers. 

“I will turn my hand against you; I will thoroughly purge your dross; I will remove all your impurities. I will restore your judges as at first, and your counselors as at the beginning. After that you will be called the City of Righteousness, the Faithful City.’ Zion will be redeemed with justice, her repentant ones with righteousness. But rebels and sinners will together be shattered, and those who forsake the LORD will perish” (Isaiah 1:25-28).

We need men to repent for their evils and come back to the Lord. We need servants of Pharaoh to quit their “jobs” robbing people on the side of the road, hustling them into courtrooms, sentencing people to cages for “driving without a license,” or manning the cages of his mass prison system. We need men to stop being tempted by well-paying careers because Pharaoh has plunder-money to throw their way to recruit them. We need them to “stop doing evil” for a paycheck. We need men to see that the statist “society” is a slave society and admit that they have been tricked into thinking “this is a free country,” “the best country ever,” “the most powerful military,” or some other lie they have bought into. 

The reason it’s so hard for men to come around to the truth is because the State is indeed a false god, and men aren’t ready to give up this godvernment easily (yes, that’s spelled right). It is not just a matter of showing them the economic fallacies of state intervention or walking them through the logic of liberty, as none of these things alone are what led men here in the first place. Statists didn’t think these issues through and decide, after long intellectual deliberation, that statism was the best philosophy to hold. Rather, they have bought into statism on faith. Statism is their religion, so to speak. It is based in sin. Thus, men will have to regenerate their hearts and renew their minds to the Lord if they are to wake up out of this slavery. It was sin, e.g., the rebellion against God that is the support of human kings, after all, that led men into slavery, into getting the State boot on our necks. As one prophet put it clearly,

“The nations will know that the house of Israel went into exile for their iniquity, because they were unfaithful to Me. So I hid My face from them and delivered them into the hands of their enemies, so that they all fell by the sword” (Ezekiel 39:23).

When men set up kings and politicians as their supposed protectors, they prove that they have no faith in the Lord God to save us and be with us, and so God gives us over to these systems and all the evils they entail as a way of rebuking us for our sin. We get all the evils that God warns about and that we deserve when we choose man-kings over the Lord (1 Samuel 8). Given that men believe politicians (e.g.. Donald Trump) are going to “save” them, it should be no mystery why we are living in the circumstance we are today, where governments are destroying people, property, the economic system, and all of society. Men get enslaved by state systems “because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and have worshiped and served other gods” (Jeremiah 22:9). We get here when we choose human “legislators” over God’s law order, “because they have forsaken My law, which I set before them; they have not walked in it or obeyed My voice” (Jeremiah 9:13).

We are going to have to come back to God and His word if we are ever to find liberty. Through chasing after the State-gods (e.g., kings, presidents, politicians), men have separated themselves from the Lord. “Your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear” (Isaiah 59:2). We have to know the Lord again if we are ever to know what liberty under God truly means. For men have been falsely led to believe that it is embodied in political orders, such as the great American plunder system they call “the best country ever” (the evil they call good). It is the Lord only who will lead us and us on the right road again. “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:6).

We have to serve God again instead of men if we want to get out of Egypt. “Commit your works to the LORD and your plans will be achieved” (Proverbs 16:3). We are going to have to take instruction from God rather than secular-statist philosophers and men on television. God will provide the wisdom for us. “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye” (Psalm 32:8). But men have to give up their false gods that they have in the State. The Kingdom of God is waiting for us.