Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. He said to his people, ‘Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.’ Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor.”
NL Daily Devotion for Wednesday, September 30, 2026
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
This is what white slave-owners in the United States did. When African slaves and poor white indentured servants began to organize, the wealthy plantation owners realized they were outnumbered. So they “dealt shrewdly” with the organizers. They hired the poor whites to be overseers of the Black slaves, doubling down on the institution of slavery, driving a wedge between those they would exploit, setting them against each other while they sat back and profited.
This is what the wealthy still do in the United States (and worldwide). There’s a famous painting/political cartoon from 2019 by Australian artist Denis Lushch that illustrates this beautifully. (Lushch is clear that the concept is older than his painting, but the fact that this meme still shows up seven years later means it struck a pretty powerful note.) The gist is that those with a lot of power and wealth set those with little against each other in order to divert attention from the gross injustice being done at the highest level. The oligarchs in our midst (above us?) would have made this Egyptian pharaoh proud in their emulation of his “shrewdness.”
The good news? God showed up and broke the Israelites out. Even better news? God did it through ordinary people like Moses, Miriam, and Aaron. Which means we have the opportunity to organize and stand up for God’s justice for all creation in the face of the cookie-hoarders. And believe me, we really, really need this hope and this call to action today.
Do I find myself categorizing people into “like me” and “not like me” without realizing it? What could be the source of this tendency?
