Two mentalities: Shalom vs. Empire

BASED ON THE BEMA PODCAST (MARTY SOLOMON & BRENT BILLINGS) · EXODUS
Egypt or shalom — two mentalities we have to choose between: fear of scarcity, or trust in God’s abundance.

Bema podcast — Marty Solomon & Brent Billings

“Two mentalities stand against each other — and we too have to choose.”

STEP 01

Mirror

Egypt is not just a place on the map — it is a way of looking at yourself, at work, at other people and at when enough is enough. And the same goes for shalom. Five pairs, always the same question, two answers: one grows out of fear, the other out of trust.

EGYPT

the mentality of Egypt — and of our world too

ROOT: FEAR

SHALOM

God’s order

ROOT: TRUST

WORTH

WORK

RESOURCES

OTHERS

WHEN IS IT ENOUGH

So many bricks, so much worth

Your worth depends on how much you produce — that is the only thing you are worth to Pharaoh. Identity rests on performance and usefulness.

You carry God’s image

Your worth does not depend on what you have managed to achieve. God loves you regardless of your performance.

Work non-stop

You have to provide for yourself, secure everything yourself — nobody will do it for you.

You can rest

You are taken care of — it does not all rest on you.

Scarcity

There is never enough of anything. You have to claw your way up the pyramid, otherwise you will go hungry.

Abundance

God has more than enough of everything; creation is tov me’od — “very good”.

Take, even at other people’s expense

When there is not enough to go round, some people are “expendable” — cheap labour.

Give away what you have to spare

Because you are taken care of, you are free to give — generosity instead of competition.

Pharaoh never says “enough”

He hoards more and more and builds himself the store cities of Pithom and Rameses.

You can say “enough”

You do not have to hoard; you can stop and rest.

in ministry this means

“You have to run the best events, you have to be involved in everything, everywhere.”

“My worth does not stand or fall with how many people turn up. I stand at peace where God has put me, so that my ministry gives the glory to him.”

a trace in the biblical text

The Israelites live in Goshen — Genesis calls that same region “the land of Rameses” (Gen 47:11). That is exactly where “the store cities Pithom and Raamses” go up (Ex 1:11), and the exodus starts “from Rameses to Succoth” (Ex 12:37): the departure begins right at Pharaoh’s storehouse.

The brick mentality

A slave in Egypt has a precisely quantifiable worth: his daily quota of bricks. Nobody asks who he is — only how much he produces. Our world talks differently, but it counts in exactly the same way: performance, usefulness, numbers. That is why Egypt is still a current address.

The image mentality

Shalom begins before any performance: you carry God’s image. Everything else grows out of that — rest is not laziness, generosity is not naivety and “enough” is not defeat. This is not a call to try harder, but to look at things differently.

STEP 02

Two circles

Neither mentality stands still — both keep spinning themselves along. Fear breeds hoarding and hoarding breeds fear; trust frees your hands to give and giving confirms the trust. That is why Pharaoh never says “enough” and why shalom is able to say it.

The vicious circle of scarcity

The circle of abundance

FEAR

TRUST

there's never enough of anything

you have to take

you hoard

…and there is still not enough

you are taken care of

you can say “enough”

you give away

…and there is still plenty

Pharaoh never says “enough”

creation is tov me’od — there is plenty to give from

You recognise a vicious circle by the fact that it never stops on its own. Pithom and Rameses are not Pharaoh’s last storehouses — only the ones we know about. For anyone who measures worth in bricks, no number of bricks is ever enough; hoarding does not cure scarcity, it only deepens it.

The circle of abundance does not begin with possessions but with the sentence “you are taken care of”. Creation is tov me’od — very good; there is enough to live on and enough to give away. The Sabbath is then a weekly training in this trust: one day a week you make no bricks — and the world does not fall apart.

STEP 03

A trace in the text

The text of Exodus hides the point in geography. The Israelites live in Goshen — and Genesis calls that same region “the land of Rameses”. So the store cities go up right in front of the slaves’ eyes. And when God leads his people out, the procession sets off from exactly there.

the same address, three scenes

GEN 47:11

“…gave them a possession in the best part of the land — in the land of Rameses.”

EX 1:11

“And they built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses.”

EX 12:37

“The Israelites set out from Rameses for Succoth.”

Israel lives in Goshen — the same region is called “the land of Rameses”

the storehouses go up exactly where the slaves live

the exodus starts right from the storehouse

SUCCOTH

the first camp of freedom

Leaving the mentality of Egypt begins at the very address where Pharaoh’s storehouses stand.

This is not a random detail. The narrator wants us to see what Israel served for whole generations: somebody else’s endless “more”. A store city is a monument to a mentality that cannot stop — built by the hands of the very people who paid the price for it.

And the exodus begins from exactly that place. Leaving Egypt is not just a change of address but notice served on the mentality of scarcity — the first stop is called Succoth, “booths”: the makeshift shelters of people who are only just learning that they are taken care of.

STEP 04

In ministry

A youth leader has their own version of bricks: the number of events, the number of people who turn up, being involved in absolutely everything. Here too the choice is between Egypt and shalom — and you have to make it yourself, nobody will do it for you.

Do not count bricks

Your worth does not stand or fall with how many people turn up or with how spectacular your events are. You do not have to have the best programme and be involved in everything, everywhere — that is Pharaoh’s quota, not God’s.

Being able to say “enough”

Rest is not a betrayal of ministry but a part of it. Anyone who cannot stop ends up serving their own fear — and the youth group will notice it before they notice it themselves.

Stand where you stand

To stand at peace where God has put me, and to work so that my ministry gives the glory to him — not to me. That is the whole definition of success in the shalom mentality.

Sources

BEMA Podcast — Marty Solomon & Brent Billings, the Exodus episodes: the mentality of empire (Egypt) versus shalom — the main source for this page

Scripture — Gen 1:31 (tov me’od); Gen 47:11 (the land of Rameses); Ex 1:11 (Pithom and Raamses); Ex 12:37 (from Rameses to Succoth); Ex 20:8–11 (the Sabbath)