A LAUGHABLE STRATEGY: Part 1 of 3

Exodus 6:1 – 14:31

They had been considered a treasure because of their giftedness, and then a national security threat because of their perceived potential. Their fate appeared to rest upon the negotiating skills of a reluctant Ambassador sent from somewhere in the desert by a Sovereign whose press kit described him simply as “I Am that I Am”. The Ambassador’s curriculum vitae included forty years of governance studies, forty years of wilderness survival studies, and would soon be updated to include a forty-year residency in both.

The Ambassador was directed to command the most powerful Monarch of the province to immediately surrender his most valuable organic assets, allowing them to fulfill their destiny as the chosen servant-ministers of another King and Kingdom. Intelligence reports confirmed that the Ambassadors’ home Kingdom held no military, geographical, or economic resources of consequence. Theirs was a laughable strategy, given the prowess and comprehensiveness of the Monarchs capabilities. No point-spread was posted for this “Rumble on the Nile”.

With contempt, the Monarch implored the Ambassador to either throw in the towel or let the games begin. Convention dictated that the Ambassador return home, pending a military buildup. However, the Ambassador resorted to yet another seemingly laughable strategy. He simply repeated his Kings Words to the Monarch and then extended his shepherd’s staff. From the Word and such a seemingly pedestrian gesture came nine cataclysmic judgments in the form of ecological, biological, meteorological, and cosmological phenomenon. Each judgment was met with defiance and retaliation, rather than capitulation. The Ambassador reticently pondered whether another strategy would be required for Kingdom Power to overcome World Power.

The Ambassador received a new Word from his Sovereign that held fast to the same laughable strategy. So compelling was this Word, the Ambassador directed all would be servant-ministers to first seek a parting gift from their neighbors, and then to book their reservations for the trip by marking the door post of their homes. Unbeknownst to the Monarch, the cost of ignoring the Word was to be far greater than the loss of silver, gold, low cost national palaces, and unfettered personal leisure.

The Word is the most powerful force in the universe; it can never fail. The Kings Word and article of faith in the hand of the Ambassador was powerful enough to provide a red carpet through the sea of impossibility. World Power always laughs first, then dismisses, and finally resists the Word. The Monarchs determined resistance led ultimately to a genealogical holocaust, military annihilation, and economic collapse. So long as the World continues to resist the Word, calamity will remain indelibly imprinted on the human historical experience.