Well anyway, I have been thinking a lot about this sermon. It's really good. You can watch it here. My thoughts have been focused on this idea of a captivity mindset. This is something that is touched on in the sermon, but I have been thinking about it through the lens of trauma.
Held Captive
Anyone who has seen The Prince of Egypt knows this story. For 400 years the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. They cried out to God for help. Then God delivers them from Pharaoh through Moses. God uses the plagues to systematically defeat all the false gods of Egypt. God splits the Red Sea so that they can walk on dry land, and drowns Pharaoh's army in the aftermath. The people are delivered and finally able to enter the land promised to Abraham so many years ago.
After extended time in captivity ... the captive no longer seeks release... They scheme to get a better pair of shoes instead of planning an escape... They no longer think about the future. Their world shrinks down to the immediate, to the present.
This is where the sermon from last week picked up. But I want to go back to that first part. For 400 years the people of Israel were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt. Have you ever thought about what that kind of systematic slavery would do to someone? How it would change their mind. I think we forget this when we tell the story of the Exodus. These were not people who lived easy lives. These were people traumatized by generations of captivity.
It Would Be Better in Egypt
In her book Trauma and Recovery, Judith Herman talks about what captivity does to people. (I'm going to rely heavily on this book. You should get it. It is a little emotionally taxing, but it is good.) She mentions that captivity can create a bond between the hostage and captor. After release many hostages will support the cause of their captor, or even visit them in prison. Does this sound familiar? The people of Israel declare it would be better in Egypt then to fight the giants in the promised land.
Herman goes on to talk about all the ways that the mind of a captive is altered. Not only are they subject to a particularly harsh from of PTSD, but they begin to disassociate and alter their understanding of reality. This is a defense mechanism. They can't deal with reality, so they create a reality that they understand. She says that this is something akin to George Orwell's concept of doublethink.
After extended time in captivity, according to Herman, the captive no longer seeks release. Instead they shift their mental energies into surviving. They scheme to get a better pair of shoes instead of planning an escape. Because of this emphasis on survival, every decision seems like a life or death decision -- because in many cases the wrong decision in captivity leads to death. They no longer think about the future. Their world shrinks down to the immediate, to the present.
For ten generations they were in slavery. Sure, God freed them from Egypt, but what if God leaves again? Can they really trust God when he did nothing for 400 years?
Herman says that captivity changes the identity of the hostage. Sometimes this is very obviously a change from a name to a number. But the reality is that the captor seeks to reshape the identity of the hostage. A broken prisoner is easier to manipulate. What's more, this identity crisis persists even after release. Even the healthiest of survivors is not the same person they were before their trauma. They must reshape their identity with this new understanding.
Not Even God is Trustworthy
Perhaps the most relevant information is that captivity will destroy someone's faith. Those who have survived captivity end up with a profound bitterness to God. They feel as if God has forsaken them. Their trauma means that they have trouble trusting anyone. There are countless holocaust survivors who lost faith. God left them to die in a prison camp.
This is the reality for Israel in our story. For ten generations they were in slavery. Sure, God freed them from Egypt, but what if God leaves again? Can they really trust God when he did nothing for 400 years? How do they know that God will defeat the giants in Canaan? They have learned that the only person you can really trust is yourself. (This is probably the reason for the sudden decision to take the promised land by force at the end of chapter 14.)
Herman says that recovery comes in three stages: safety, remembrance and mourning, and reconnection. Israel was safe. God had delivered them from the hand of the oppressor. But I'm not sure they really had time to remember and mourn. And they certainly hadn't had time to reconnect to the world.
Telling Stories
Stories are powerful things. The stories that we tell shape how we view the world. And, according to Herman, the stories told by survivors help them recover. When someone is traumatized the event becomes jumbled in their mind. Trauma that is not dealt with stays ever present. They live the event over and over again. It is only through telling the story of the event that a person is able to make sense of it. The trauma stops being something that happens to them in the present and becomes a story about something that happened to them in the past.
Israel walked in the desert for forty years, because they didn't trust God to take them into the promised land. In those forty years they had the opportunity to tell the story of their exodus. Common acceptance is that this is the time that Moses wrote down the first five books of the Bible. The years in the desert were a way for Israel to remember and to mourn. The brokenness of the last four hundred years was healed in a tenth of that time.
Yes, they wandered. Yes, they had no home. But neither did God. He was not asking Israel to do anything that He was not also doing. God was a stranger in a strange land, just like Israel.
The story of the Passover is the central story of Jewish identity. It is this story that took shape in the desert. Every year Jewish people tell their children about the deliverance of God. They remind their children that God was faithful to bring them out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. They remember the captivity and mourn the loss, but they also celebrate the goodness of God and look to the future. They went from people focused on the here and now to a people who looked forward to the hope of the Promised Land. All this started with forty years in the desert.
A Subtle Grace
God was with Israel in the desert. The cloud and the pillar of fire prove that. God never left Israel, even when they complained against him. God was gracious to the rebellious people. He fed them with food from heaven. He gave them water to drink. They lacked for nothing.
Yes, they wandered. Yes, they had no home. But neither did God. He was not asking Israel to do anything that He was not also doing. God was a stranger in a strange land, just like Israel. God was homeless and nomadic. God took the time of the desert wanderings to build trust with His chosen people. He did not abandon them. He proved his faithfulness day after day after day.
Would God have protected Israel if they went into the promised land right away? Of course, but I think this story is a reminder that even when we are faithless, God is faithful. It is a reminder that God shows us more grace than we realize. Its also a lesson in how to love a traumatized person. Herman, informs us that these people will often be hostile to everyone. They don't know what it means to trust anyone. They lash out because they don't know better. They will not reciprocate love because they don't know how. They must be taught.
Just like Israel needed forty years in the desert to learn that God was trustworthy, there are those among us who need time to rebuild trust. Trust of others and trust in God.
This was the subtle grace of the desert. This was the time where God taught His people what it meant to be loved. God showed them His faithfulness. He taught them about love and forgiveness. He reminded them that Egypt was wicked. He gave them the law, but only after delivering them. They were His chosen people first.
Be Gracious to Survivors
The point of the sermon this past week is that we need to trust God to carry us into the promised land. We need to repent past rebellions that have kept us in the desert and recognize that God can defeat any giants that lie ahead. This is true. But this is never an easy process. This is an especially hard process for those who have suffered trauma.
Just like Israel needed forty years in the desert to learn that God was trustworthy, there are those among us who need time to rebuild trust. Trust of others and trust in God. Our job as the church is to provide that space for people to heal. The church should be safe. It should be a place where people can remember and mourn. It should be a place where people can rebuild their lives.
May you know the love and grace of God. May you be a place for survivors to heal. May you show the subtle grace of God. And may God bring healing to us all.
Amen
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