The Sweet Dropper

A little reflection on taxation and the Biblical narrative for your April 15…

The book of Genesis ends and the book of Exodus begins with the descendants of Jacob living in Egypt in prosperity and favor as a highly respected colony of foreigners in Pharaoh’s land. Some time after the death of Joseph, we read of a turn in their collective fortunes:

Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field.In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves. [Exodus 1:8-13]

The narrative is typically sparse. I’ve always wondered how they were enslaved. Moses tells us only that the Jews were a prosperous and growing political minority, and that Egypt felt that national security demanded some shrewd policy changes. Would the people of Israel be loyal to Egypt when the chips were down? Would they leave, which apparently would disastrous for Egypt (perhaps economically)? These questions were faced by a new pharaoh, one who did not know Joseph–suggested by some scholars to be Sesostris III, who ruled over what is called the ‘feudal age’ of Egypt. (Other candidates include Amosis, founder of the 18th Dynasty, who ruled 300 years after Sesostris III.)

Under the legal codes of the time, which are believed to be very static and fixed, a person could be enslaved for being a criminal, a prisoner of war, or a delinquent debtor or taxpayer. If that is so, then it is quite likely that the new pharaoh could have assessed new taxes or tributes upon the Jewish population and set the rate so high that it could not be paid. Delinquency or rebellion against taxes would have given pharaoh justification to confiscate Jewish wealth and assets and to enslave them. It may very well have been through the “ways and means” of burdensome taxation that the new pharaoh dealt shrewdly with the children of Israel.

History shows us that many rulers and governments have followed this example–an unpopular wealthy class that is growing in number and influence, without political power, is taxed into oblivion, emigration, or rebellion. In the 20th century, Adolf Hitler imposed confiscatory and unjust taxes on Jewish communities in Germany as his initial steps in addressing “the Jewish problem.” Even in the modern nation-state of Israel the high Arab birthrate in the West Bank and Gaza strip is a key reason why some Israelis want to solve the problem of the occupied territories now, before Arabs outnumber Jews. [And no, I'm not equating Israeli and Nazi German policies--just pointing out contemporary manifestations of the concerns about growing "foreign" populations. Similarities could be traced in the U.S. over Hispanic immigration or in EU countries of the rapidly growing Muslim population.]

Where am I heading with all this? As you send off your tax returns today or check off the list in your mind that you really did send them off some time ago, think about the command of the Apostle Paul in Romans 13:7, that we should pay taxes to whom taxes are due. In addition, as citizens of a democratic republic, we ought to be alert and vigilant. Tax policies have always been about something more than raising revenues for governments to function. They can also be tools of injustice and oppression.