It’s tempting to compartmentalize our lives into different life stages. As a society we move from place to place, job to job, community to community. Whenever we move into some new situation there can be very little that connects us to our past environments. I’ve moved between different schools, geographies, friends and families, and each time it can be tempting to simply “make a clean break” and move on to whatever’s next.
When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, it was easy to think they had everything set: they left with the plunder of the entire country, they had a God-given leader, and they had daily guidance and provision from God. It seemed their future was golden, but they ultimately spend 40 years wandering in the desert essentially learning how to be a people of God.
Turns out, they weren’t exactly ready to make a full transition – there was still a great deal of Egyptian culture within them. There’s a common phrase: “It took 4 weeks to get the Israelites out of Egypt, but 40 years to get Egypt out of the Israelites.” Their longing for Egyptian food (Ex 16:3), water (Num 20:2-4), and security (Num 14:1-3) shows how their affinity for the life they had experienced as slaves.
But even then, there never really was a clean break with Egypt. Their Egyptian captivity remained central to the basic concept of Israelite identity, and they were to remind themselves of that fact over and over again. When they presented the firstfruits of the soil to the priests, they were instructed to say the following words:
“My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous. But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, putting us to hard labor. Then we cried out to the LORD, the God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression. So the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with miraculous signs and wonders. He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey; and now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you, O LORD, have given me.” (Deuteronomy 26:5-10)
Every year, the Israelites were to repeat this story, to imprint the narrative into their basic identity. Their past still impacted and influenced them, not only as a vague sense of personal history but also in shaping how they treated their fellow human beings. So often the commands of the Pentateuch come with the admonition, “Remember you were slaves in Egypt,” for commands as diverse as obeying the Sabbath (Deut 5:15) to caring for the homeless among them (Deut 24:17). Their past shaped who they were (their identity) and also how they acted and behaved on a day-to-day basis.
Even the other drastic changes throughout the Bible are not complete breaks with the past. Even Paul, perhaps the most dramatic convert who forsook a life of legalism and fundamentalism for a message of grace and hope, never fully distanced himself from his past life. Nonetheless, he recognized that this growing faith in the risen Christ was supported by its “root” of Judaism and its religious practices (Ro 11:18).
Closure is a good thing. It helps us prepare the future without the ‘baggage’ that blinds us to future possibilities. Nonetheless, our current identity and personhood is not simply a statement of where we are at this moment. We are the product of our pasts: the years of experience in different environments all have contributed to who we are, and they will continue to have a strong impact on our lives for a very long time.
So, as I graduate from college, the task is to remember all the experiences, the lessons, the relationships. I should recognize that they will always play a role in shaping who I am at any moment in my life. Even though I move on from one phase of life, I will still be deeply connected to and changed by the people I’ve met, the struggles I’ve faced, the times I’ve failed, and the grace that’s been in it all.
