Exodus Signs: ‘Kobayashi Maru’

God does not believe in the ‘no-win’ scenario. 

I’ve been making my way through the Book of Exodus…and it’s been kinda fun.  Not only does Moses look like Charlton Heston in my mind, it’s one of those books where you keep picking up new things with each pass through. 

If you’ve watched Heston’s ‘Ten Commandments’, you likely know the back-story.  Moses is born in the darkest of days when Hebrews are enslaved by the Egyptians.  After a series of divinely-inspired events, Moses raised an Egyptian, flees Egypt for the wilderness.  There he comes across the burning bush where God directs Moses to return to Egypt to lead the Hebrews from Egypt’s bondage.  After some to-ing and fro-ing with God (you know WHO wins that right?), Moses returns to Egypt.  At his first audience, Moses asks Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go.  Pharaoh’s reply is found in Exodus 5:4-9“…why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!” ⁵ Then Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working.”  (Exodus 5:4).  That same day, Pharaoh gives this order to his slave masters “You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. ⁸ But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don’t reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ ⁹ Make the work harder for the people so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies.”

This thought immediately came to mind...Dude, that’s a ‘Kobayashi Maru’!  Now if you’ve watched Star Trek “Wrath of Khan” more than once, you are probably familiar with the ‘Kobayashi Maru’.  And knowing that does not make you a Trekkie!  The Kobayashi Maru is a simulation designed to test a Starfleet cadet’s character.  The cadet receives a distress signal from the starship ‘Kobayashi Maru’ which presents a difficult choice of rescuing the ship and being destroyed by the enemy or leaving it to be destroyed but saving yourself, your ship and your crew and potentially preventing the start of a war.  There is no ‘right’ choice.  Neither is a win, both are clear loses.  It’s designed to be unwinnable in order to test how you face fear in the face of uncertain death.

Here in Exodus 5, Pharaoh creates an unwinnable set of rules.  The Israelites either have to make bricks without straw (apparently a hard thing to do) or go collect straw so that they can then come back to make the bricks.  In either case, they have to meet the same quota.  If they try to make bricks without straw…they don’t meet quota because the bricks don’t form or they easily break.  If they go collect straw, they won’t have the time needed to make quota - consider, the Israelites were slaves and as we hear right them the start “the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.” (Exodus 1:13 and Exodus 1:14 just for emphasis!).  I gather from that, that the quota was already exceedingly high…their days were pretty full, there were no slave unions, and no legislated ‘break times’.  A ‘no-win’ scenario. 

Now let’s just say this was a Kobayashi Maru scenario of sorts meant to test the character of the Hebrews.  This wasn’t about how the Hebrews were actually going to make bricks with or without straw.  God had brought His people to a breaking point.  While being slaves was almost too much to bear, it was still bearable.  What price then the possibility of hope?  Was that too much?  So what to do when faced with a seemingly impossible situation. In the face of uncertain death, do I react in fear turning away from God OR do I respond in faith trusting in the all-sufficiency of God.  

The Kobayashi Maru was meant to be unwinnable.  The world is really an unwinnable set of circumstances.  You can survive, you can even thrive (seemingly).  But in the end, “everything has its time and everything dies” (Doctor Who, 2005).  You can be happy to be sure, there are definitely moments of sheer joy.  But the world won’t win in the end, more often it feels more about losing less.  Yes, the world is under curse (Genesis)…BUT IT’S BEING REDEEMED!  Remember what I said earlier…God does not believe in the ‘no-win scenario’.  As my good friend and mentor often says ‘That’ll preach!!!’

Captain James T. Kirk is said to be the only person ever to have beat the no-win scenario. He changed the rules of the game by reprogramming the simulator.  He realized that situations governed by an unwinnable set of rules can only be won by changing the rules.

Jesus changed the rules (fair enough…His game, His rules) allowing us the chance to win.  Or rather the choice to win.  By dying on the Cross, Jesus defeated the penalty of sin (death) giving us the choice of eternal life.  We need not fear death because Jesus already faced that ‘Kobayashi Maru’ for us…and won…for today, tomorrow, forever…for you, for me, for everyone.  But Hope does demand a choice.

What if we really believed that we were fighting a battle where victory is already known and guaranteed?  How confidently would we fight then?  How much would we fear?  I feel good about my choice.  Yet despite the fact that I know the day has already been won, I let fear and insecurity leave me feeling defeated and distracted from my Hope (bondage) rather than causing me to respond in faith trusting in His provision and promise.  And like the Hebrews, I too often respond by groaning and complaining…’KAAAHHHN’.  Then I remember, while I may face a decision between two hard and difficult paths, one invariably leads to death, the other to LIFE.  That’s not to say that one is without pain (it is most assuredly not and in some ways more so).  But at the end of it, one is a no-win, the other a clear hands-down VICTORY.  Because...God does not believe in the ‘no-win’ scenario.  

Southern Accent

There’s a southern accent, 

where I come from

The young’uns call it country

The Yankees call it dumb

I got my own way of talkin’

But everything is done, 

with a southern accent

Where I come from.”

(Southern Accents, Tom Petty)

You don’t really ever appreciate that you have an ‘accent’ until you go to a place where you think they have one.  Thing is, check your citizenship.  You are in their land.  Majority rules friend.  You’re the one with the odd phrases and funny ‘way of talkin’.  You’re the one with the accent.  This first occurred to me when I went to Wales to study for a year.  The first person I spoke to getting off the bus asked me where I was from.  I proudly said Canada.  “Funny” she said.  “I thought you were Irish.”  I quickly realized that I was the ‘stranger in a strange land’.  And you stand out.

This past year, my wife and I went to see Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers play Toronto.  Good concert.  And I’ve been on a bit of a Tom Petty kick since.  His song ‘Southern Accents’ has really been speaking to me lately.  Not because I’m a southerner…I’m an [Irish] Canadian (at least according to one Welsh lady)!  It’s because I’m intrigued by the thought that everyone recognizes a southerner, whether you’re from the south or not.  No matter where they go, what they do or how they do it, southerners do it ‘southern style’.  “Everything is done with a southern accent, where [they] come from.”  A southern accent is not just how they talk.  Where they come from informs very much who they are.  It’s part of their DNA.  Their accent is an outward expression of their identity and a representation of how they live.  And it comes from where they come from.

And as a man of God this really challenges me.  Genesis 1:27 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”  We are created by the Creator in HIS image to reflect HIS image.  Who we are, is everything about who He is.  It’s our identity.  How great is that!  How scary is that?!  Who I am and how I live should represent Him.  Even more, who I am and how I live should actually reflect the glory of God.  Represent and Reflect.  The perfection of that is described in Hebrews 1:3 in speaking about Christ “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being…”.  But do people see that of me?  Does He see that of me??  My true ‘accent’ should rightfully be the radiance of His Glory…an outward expression of His identity to this generation, this strange land. 

Sometimes though, I think I spend too much time away from home.  It’s far too easy to forget where I come from.  I too often blend over standing out.  Thing about an accent is that you tend to lose it the longer you’re away from home.  It’s always still there of course, but it tends to get dulled and distorted by living away and living with.  It’s a powerful reminder to LIVE AS a “stranger in a strange land” always “longing for a better country—a heavenly one” (Hebrews 11:16)…’where I come from’.  Thanks Tom for the reminder to LIVE FOR.