Ever been to a failed state? I’ve been to a couple and have friends in several others. These places aren’t a lot of fun. Failed states are broadly defined as places where the government has failed to serve their people with basic services. The result is chaos, from civil disobedience to massive refugee issues.
I was recently reminded of an insight from the Old Testament about failed states. When the nation of Israel was in Egypt, enslaved by the Pharaohs, they were a nation of people with little identity. There was no written code for their religious system and they relied on verbal history alone. Empowered by the conversation with God, Moses heads to Egypt and eventually secures the release of the enslaved Israelites.
The result of 400-years of slavery had it’s impact on the people. Israel was a failed nation. It had no national boundaries, no shared law, few cultural traditions. They were poorly educated and mostly illiterate (historians, correct me if I’m wrong on that). Then along comes the prophet Moses, and the next thing they know they’re wandering off into the wilderness wondering what they’d gotten themselves into.
In time, Israel became a nation. What’s interesting to me is HOW they became a nation (and I’m not referring to the modern Israel). It’s a good blueprint for how a failed nation can get out of their situation.
Of course, all the pragmatic steps I’m about to outline are minor compared to a powerful God on your side. Hard to supplant somebody who parts a sea. But there are still some great lessons to learn about how to rebuild a nation.
It began with a prophet. A leader. An excellent administrator. Moses. But what did that leader do?
Well, first things first. Provide emergency relief. Honor God. Find water. Secure a food supply. Create security. Build a foundation of knowledge and historical perspective. Establish the rule of law. Encourage the arts. Then go deep with all of those steps.
Here, I’ll outline it in a bit more detail:
1. Emergency relief: in the Biblical account, it’s to get the people out of slavery. In an emergency situation, our modern sensibilities needs to set aside its angst; don’t worry about being an outside force that brings cultural bias, just get people into a safe and free environment. Practice cultural sensibility in all ways and at all times, but don’t become so bogged down with it that you freeze. So many countries around the world need emergency help due to floods, famine, earthquakes, etc. I’m thankful for organizations big enough to do that.
2. Worship. Take the time to honor God. It starts with the Passover and has been going on for thousands of years. Throughout the effort of building a nation, taking the time to be thankful and recognize the divine Providence at hand is a critical part of the process. Our modern Thanksgiving is a bit like that.
3. Find water. Helps to have an omnipotent God with you in the desert. But however you do it, find water. This prevents needless death.
4. Secure a food source. Again, great to have a God who creates low flying birds and provides manna. The modern equivalent is clear: having a secure source of food is critical for a nation to develop.
5. Protect yourself and establish security by force or diplomacy. Didn’t take long for the Israelites to come under attack. So they built an army, responded, and became much more confident. Later they were good diplomats securing peace with many neighbors. Obviously, we’ve seen a lot of crazed dictators and self-described revolutionaries abuse the force necessary for security. I’m not suggesting that a new nation become warlike. I’m simply saying that a country that cannot defend itself from either outside or inside forces is never going to have the confidence necessary to develop.
6. Build the educational system. Moses did this by writing the first five books of the Old Testament. It’s the first time anybody put down the oral traditions, and the result was surely a rise in both literacy and a desire to learn. Many things were read aloud to the entire nation, a sort of massive seminar. The same needs to happen today to rebuild a nation: the entire country must embrace education.
7. Establish the rule of law. Not only did Moses convey the Ten Commandments to the people, he established a court system that we mimic to this day. To build a nation today, we must create a system that brings justice to the people, allowing for disagreements to be settled through civil proceedings instead of civil war. People must know that when they are wronged, there is a solution that does not involve violence.
8. Establish the arts. God takes special pride in this step, probably because we humans tend to overlook it. Too often we stop at this point and become like the Spartans. But in the Mosaic books, chapter after chapter details building design, woodworking, weaving, painting, working with gold and fine jewels, and other such craftsmanship. This honors talent, but it also adds to the sense that we are unique and wonderful people. It builds national pride.
9. Create an economic system. Moses did this by taking all of the steps above and allowing the ambitious to be rewarded, the lazy to struggle, and the creative to prosper.
10. Go deep with all of the above. Continually honor the Creator, explore the arts, do not neglect security, uphold the law, seek justice. Moses does this by writing book after book that establishes the people’s historical identity (Genesis and Exodus), cultural identify (Numbers is amazing that way), and the specifics of the law and the arts (hard to read Leviticus without seeing the depth of both). Deuteronomy takes all of that and creates a wonderful summary on how the foundation is the commandment to love God and neighbor.
The result of these 10 steps? No more failed state. A nation is born that is healthy, prosperous and safe.
Okay, granted, in the Old Testament this nation goes on to pursue ethnic cleansing. Or at least that’s how our modern eyes read the story. They turn from God continually, have bitter internal fights, and end up revering an adulterous murderer as their greatest king. But that’s a debate others can tackle. My point is simpler: a bunch of people who were enslaved in a foreign land for 400-years found a way to create a nation. In modern relief & development efforts, we can learn a lot from that.