Exodusing Addiction
Exodusing Addiction
In this story, we examine archaeological evidence from the Israelite Exodus. We also discuss the parallels between Exodus and recovery from addiction.
On the surface, the book of Exodus is a story about the ancient Israelites escaping slavery in Egypt. But metaphorically, Exodus teaches us important lessons about escaping addiction.
The word addiction isn’t in the Bible because addiction is a modern English word. It comes from the Latin word, addictus, which means “devoted”, “bound”, or “enslaved”. In ancient Rome, an addictus was a debtor legally enslaved to his creditor until the debt was paid off.
The first modern use of addiction came from William Shakespeare in his play, Henry V. In the first scene, the Archbishop of Canterbury claims the King’s new knowledge of theology is a huge improvement over his previous vainglorious habits. He says, “his addiction was to courses vain.”
The closest concept to addiction in the Old Testament is a person who worships false gods. The New Testament calls this Idolatry. By the end of this story, you’ll see how addiction and idolatry are the exact same thing. Idolatry comes from the Greek word eidõlolatreia, which is a combination of two words:
eidol - meaning “image” or “mirage”
latria - meaning “service” or slavery”
So eidõlolatreia literally means “mirage slavery”.
Whenever Christians hear the word idolatry, we typically think of little figurines carved out of wood or stone. Here are a few examples from the Oriental Institute Museum at the University of Chicago.
We generally think of prehistoric people as simpletons (or idiots) for worshipping little statues like this, but we often miss the point about an idol’s function. So here’s a more modern example of how idolatry leads to addiction:
All of us are born with a deep desire to be loved by other people. There are times when we hate to feel our “cosmic individualness”. Some people try to escape the existential pain by becoming famous (so everyone they don’t know will love them). Some people try to escape the existential pain by “people pleasing” (so everyone they do know will love them). And some people try to escape the existential pain with porn.
Actually, a lot of people do that because porn is 30% of all the data traveling across the Internet right now. When we watch porn, we sell ourselves the mirage of desire from another person. That’s why all those professional “sex athletes” are staring directly into the camera. Porn temporarily soothes our loneliness, but the loneliness eventually returns. So we come back to porn over and over again, which leads us into addiction.
@pornaddicts: I’m not judging you. I’ve been a porn addict. Porn is one of the most effective drugs on this planet. If you need to chat with someone about recovery, email me, because it’s very difficult to escape that addiction alone. As you will see, it’s very difficult to escape almost every addiction alone.
Finding Your Idols
Now let’s consider some less obvious “false gods”. A little girl carrying around her teddy bear is carrying around her idol. When she is scared of the dark, or uncertain about her future, she will cling to her teddy bear for comfort. See how that becomes an idol?
If you don’t think little kids are addicted to their stuffed animals, just try to take one away from them. They are just as “devoted”, “bound”, and “enslaved” to their stuffed animals as alcoholics are to their favorite drinks. All of my children had a stuffed animal “lovie” that reassured them in life. Maybe your kids do that by carrying around their favorite toy, blanket, or sippy cup. This is exactly what prehistoric people were doing with their little god statues and good luck charms. They didn’t have the modern technology to “self soothe” with Netflix, weed, and porn.
See, as we age our childish addictions don’t go away. They only get stronger. What’s the difference between a 4-year-old boy who won’t go anywhere without his sippy cup and a 40-year-old “boy” who won’t go anywhere without his beer? 🤷
What’s the difference between a 6-year-old boy who won’t go anywhere without his toy truck and a 36-year-old “boy” who won’t go anywhere without his Ford F-250 pickup truck with the lift kit and big tires? 🤷
Now you might be doubting this relationship between idols and addiction, but whatever your co-dependencies are, this world has already found them. That’s why this world exists.
Idols are like Keyser Soze in the movie, The Usual Suspects, “the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist”. That’s what your false gods and my false gods do to us every single day. So here’s a quick exercise to easily identify all the idols in your life:
Open the notes app on your phone and create a note titled, “Things I need to be happy”.
Now make a list of everything in your life that you use at least twice a week including: coffee, sugar, porn, sex, drugs, music, video games, Instagram, Google, Netflix, YouTube, Fox News, CNBC, TikTok, Snapchat, television, cocaine, alcohol, ice cream, energy drinks, eating meat, cigarettes, weed, massages, air conditioning, your gym, your car, your golf course, your sofa, your bed, your house, your dog, your clothes, your iPhone, everything. Those are all tools for surviving this world.
If you don’t at least have 20 items on your list, you’re being lazy. Repeat step 2.
Now sort that list according to how bad your life would suck if you had to live without each item for 40 days.
Those are your idols. It’s not more complicated than that. You may think I’m joking, but I have fasted everything in that list for at least 40 days. Actually, I lived at least six months without most of those things. I even lived an entire year with no drugs, no alcohol, no home, and only one carry-on suitcase of total possessions after I got rich. The only thing I’m too scared to fast for 40 days is hot water, but I start most of my showers with cold water. 🚿
When you live an entire year with only 20 kg of total possessions, it’s the closest feeling you will get to invincibility. If someone stole “my entire life”, I could replace the whole thing for $700. Today, if I have clean water and air conditioning, I feel like I’m living “high on the hog”. When you fast that aggressively, chocolate milk and grocery store sushi feel like luxurious treats.
You might be thinking that you don’t need anything to be happy either, but I can assure you—you’re lying to yourself. You will never know how truly addicted you are to anything until you start going into withdrawals. Maybe you respect your top 5 idols enough to fear living without them—that’s a good thing. Because the scariest idols on your list are the ones you tell yourself you would be fine to live without.
@christians: In Matthew 4, when Jesus battles Satan for control of this planet, he stops eating for 40 days and 40 nights. That’s why the first shot in the battle for our eternity was, “If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
People who don’t fast probably think Satan is being particularly mean, but people who do fast will recognize just how prepared Jesus was for this moment. For example, after 40 days of a coffee fast, I really don’t care if I have to wait one more day. It’s somewhat insignificant. The problem is coffee is my favorite thing to get readdicted to. When I’m on day 3 of a coffee fast, I might push an old lady down a flight of stairs to get to double americano. 🤣
Entering Addiction
Now let’s switch gears and look at the ways the story of Exodus correlates with addiction. Exodus begins with Joseph. According to the last few chapters of Genesis, Joseph did not want to go to the “land of the false gods”, but he was forced into it by some very strong “peer pressure”. His brothers sold him into slavery. At first, Joseph’s experience was horrible, just like that first taste of coffee or beer is disgusting. The first time you witness hardcore porn, it’s gross. That first cigarette or snuff might make you vomit. 🤮
But after you get “locked up in jail” with those things for a few years, you realize things aren’t quite so bad. In fact, you are elevated to a very “high position” with a permanent home in the fatness of the land. Everything is great, but every addict knows how this story ends. After 430 years of dependency, what began as a position of power has now become a “position of slavery” that you just can’t escape. See how the story arc in Exodus follows the path toward addiction?
Joseph was a real person in the real world who radically transformed the Egyptian economy. The ancient Egyptians called him Sobekemhat, which means “he who controls the water”. In all of ancient Egyptian history, Sobekemhat was the only person to ever hold the title, “Controller of the Entire Land”. If you want to learn more about Sobekemhat, here is a fascinating lecture from Dr. Douglas Petrovich titled, Is There Evidence for Jacob and Joseph?. (106 mins)
I’ve seen it three times. 🤓
We can still see archaeological evidence of Joseph’s time on planet Earth from outer space. In the image below, the big green triangle is the Nile Delta. The little green triangle is called the Faiyum. The Faiyum was artificially created in antiquity by Sobekemhat using the small canal on the southeast side.
Here is another lecture from Dr. Petrovich called, Is There Evidence for Manasseh and Ephraim in Egypt?, where he discusses more archaeological evidence from the ancient city of Avaris, which the Bible calls the “land of Goshen”. The city of Avaris contains the only ancient Egyptian palace with two master bedrooms. (54 mins)
And here is my favorite archaeological documentary that confirms the life of Joseph, called Patterns of Evidence: Exodus by Tim Mahoney. (115 mins)
I’ve also seen this one three times. 🤓
Exodusing Addiction
Most of the recovered addicts in this world were rescued by a former addict who knew the way out. That’s Moses.
Like Joseph, Moses had a horrible childhood. The ancient Egyptians were utterly disgusted by sheep and shepherds, so they viewed the Canaanites as mongrels, or subhuman. Viewing a neighboring tribe as subhuman in order to enslave them was pretty common in antiquity. That lasted until, what, 1960? 1960 wasn’t just an important time for civil rights in America, about 10% of all countries on Earth gained their independence in the year 1960 after the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1514.
Think about how recent that was.
To make Moses’s childhood more relatable, let’s imagine a wealthy plantation owner in America during the Civil War. This plantation owner is so rich that his plantation is the size of Georgia and Alabama combined. His massive slave population has grown so rapidly that he is super paranoid about a Django Unchained style revolt. Rightfully so. So he orders all his employees to throw every new African baby into the nearest lake to drown. I know this metaphor is horrific—that’s the point.
The oldest daughter of this plantation owner is rebellious, like all children, so she decides to adopt a single African boy as her own child. She raises him indoors, educates him, and brings him along to family dinners. Now imagine this redneck plantation owner looking out over his Thanksgiving spread and seeing his “mongrel grandson” at the other end of table. Every day that grandson was a personal reminder that his own daughter refused to obey his orders. 😡
Now, how do you imagine Moses was treated during family gatherings for the first 40 years of his life?
Again, apologies for the horrific metaphor, but do you see how it changes the way we imagine the childhood of Moses?
How many people at Pharoah’s dinner table thought of Moses as subhuman?
How often did Moses hear racial slurs growing up?
How often was Moses told he was worthless?
Even worse, Moses stuttered when he talked, so how well could he even defend himself?
Moses was raised and educated in a culture of slavery and it deeply humbled him. Numbers 12:3 says, “Moses was a very humble man, more so than any man on the face of the earth.”
That’s pretty humble.
Unless you are that humble about your own addictions, you will never be able to escape them. Did you even attempt that exercise to find your idols? You should be way more scared of your “automated self” than you are. The animal you live inside will lie to you every chance it gets. In the Parable of the Prodigal Son, the addicted son was bankrupt and stealing food from a pig before he reached the level of humility required to escape his addictions.
That’s pretty humble.
Moses was humble enough, but he wasn’t ready to lead other people into recovery. He was still too angry at himself and his circumstances. Let’s pick up the story in Exodus 2.
Exodus 2: Years later, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his own people and observed their forced labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. 12 Looking all around and seeing no one, he struck the Egyptian dead and hid him in the sand.
13 The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you attacking your neighbor?”
14 “Who made you a leader and judge over us?” the man replied. “Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?”
Then Moses became afraid and thought: What I did is certainly known. 15 When Pharaoh heard about this, he tried to kill Moses.
But Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in the land of Midian, and sat down by a well.
16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came to draw water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17 Then some shepherds arrived and drove them away, but Moses came to their rescue and watered their flock. 18 When they returned to their father Reuel he asked, “Why have you come back so quickly today?”
19 They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”
See, even after Moses escapes, he still identifies himself as an Egyptian. So after 40 years in the land of slavery, he retreats to the wilderness to embrace his true self—a poor shepherd. Moses spends 40 more years in the desert “creating new order” in his life. After he fasts all those Egyptian habits out of his life, he has the strength he needs to go back and rescue his friends from slavery.
What happens next is as legendary as legends get. Moses brings ten plagues down upon the Egyptians that directly confront one of their false gods.
The Nile river turns to blood. Giant piles of dead frogs cover homes, courtyards, and fields creating a horrible stench. Gnats and flies swarm the Egyptians and their animals, but not the Israelites. Hail and locusts destroy the Egyptian crops. The universe even stops providing daylight for the Egyptians, but not for the Israelites, so even Ra, the sun god was subordinated to Yahweh. These plagues totally ruined the economy, the politics, and the military of the 18th dynasty. The ancient Egyptians didn’t conquer any new territories after this for more than 100 years.
As terrifying as these plagues are to imagine, there is actually an Egyptian eyewitness account that dates back to this time. Here is a brief summary of the Ipuwer Papyrus, which is yet another archaeological artifact that corroborates the Bible. (21 mins)
My favorite detail from the Ipuwer Papyrus comes from verse 10. It reads, “Gold and lapis lazuli, silver and malachite, carnelian and bronze . .. are fastened on the neck of female slaves.”
This would never happen in any ancient empire, but way back in Exodus 3, when Moses meets God in the burning bush, God says,
Exodus 3: 19 “However, I know that the king of Egypt will not allow you to go, unless he is forced by a strong hand. 20 I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My miracles that I will perform in it. After that, he will let you go. 21 And I will give these people such favor in the sight of the Egyptians that when you go, you will not go empty-handed. 22 Each woman will ask her neighbor and any woman staying in her house for silver and gold jewelry, and clothing, and you will put them on your sons and daughters. So you will plunder the Egyptians.”
Then, just before Passover, God reminds Moses to ask the Egyptians for their jewelry.
Exodus 11: 1 The Lord said to Moses, “I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will drive you out of here. 2 Now announce to the people that both men and women should ask their neighbors for silver and gold jewelry.” 3 The Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. And the man Moses was highly regarded in the land of Egypt by Pharaoh’s officials and the people.
Here’s what happened next.
Exodus 12: 29 Now at midnight the Lord struck every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon, and every firstborn of the livestock. 30 During the night Pharaoh got up, he along with all his officials and all the Egyptians, and there was a loud wailing throughout Egypt because there wasn’t a house without someone dead. 31 He summoned Moses and Aaron during the night and said, “Get up, leave my people, both you and the Israelites, and go, worship Yahweh as you have asked. 32 Take even your flocks and your herds as you asked and leave, and also bless me.”
33 Now the Egyptians pressured the people in order to send them quickly out of the country, for they said, “We’re all going to die!” 34 So the people took their dough before it was leavened, with their kneading bowls wrapped up in their clothes on their shoulders.
35 The Israelites acted on Moses’ word and asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing. 36 And the Lord gave the people such favor in the Egyptians’ sight that they gave them what they requested. In this way they plundered the Egyptians.
We rarely imagine the Israelites wandering through the desert loaded down with gold, lapis lazuli, silver, carnelian, and bronze, but they were. In the metaphor of addiction, these gold and gems represent the wisdom and experience gained from living under the control of false gods. The Israelites knew how horrible slavery could be, they knew they wanted out, but they weren’t quite ready for their new life in the promised land.
Exodus 13: 17 When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them along the road to the land of the Philistines, even though it was nearby; for God said, “The people will change their minds and return to Egypt if they face war.”
How many times do we return to our addictions when we face war against them? If you try to quit drinking alcohol but work as a bartender, you’re probably going to fall back into that habit. If you are a recovering drug addict, but still play softball with your drug dealer, you are not going to win that war. If you are stuck in a battle against porn, you will face war every time you are alone with your computer. To get free, you need to get to the desert—you need to fast the habit.
Exodus 13: 18 So He led the people around toward the Red Sea along the road of the wilderness. And the Israelites left the land of Egypt in battle formation.
So God led the Israelites toward the Red Sea where they would be cornered into making a decision that still deeply affects our world today.
Archaeology of Moses
Most of the archaeological evidence for the Israelite crossing of the Red Sea indicates a place called Nuweiba Beach in modern day Egypt. It lines up well with the description in Exodus 14.
Exodus 14: 1 Then the Lord spoke to Moses: 2 “Tell the Israelites to turn back and camp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea; you must camp in front of Baal-zephon, facing it by the sea. 3 Pharaoh will say of the Israelites: They are wandering around the land in confusion; the wilderness has boxed them in. 4 I will harden Pharaoh’s heart so that he will pursue them. Then I will receive glory by means of Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am Yahweh.” So the Israelites did this.
Notice the long, winding riverbeds through the canyons that prevented the Israelites from escaping? Exodus 12:37 says 600,000 men aged 20 to 60 left Egypt, not including their families. If we include families, that’s at least 2 million people. Nuweiba Beach is really the only place where 2 million people could be cornered by the Egyptians. Plus, the underwater topography there is very unusual for the Gulf of Aqaba.
It’s the only place with a slope that is gentle enough for 2 million men, women, children, and old people to easily walk across the ocean loaded down with jewelry, clothing, and all their livestock.
The crossing of the Red Sea wasn’t enabled by a “special tide”, a “reed sea”, or any other natural explanation. The universe is made out of information like a quantum computer game, and whoever made it came down to Earth and made a miracle.
Exodus 14: 19 Then the Angel of God, who was going in front of the Israelite forces, moved and went behind them. The pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and stood behind them. 20 It came between the Egyptian and Israelite forces. The cloud was there in the darkness, yet it lit up the night. So neither group came near the other all night long.
21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove the sea back with a powerful east wind all that night and turned the sea into dry land. So the waters were divided, 22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with the waters like a wall to them on their right and their left.
The two walls of water were a half a mile tall at the deepest point.
23 The Egyptians set out in pursuit—all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen—and went into the sea after them. 24 Then during the morning watch, the Lord looked down on the Egyptian forces from the pillar of fire and cloud, and threw them into confusion. 25 He caused their chariot wheels to swerve and made them drive with difficulty. “Let’s get away from Israel,” the Egyptians said, “because Yahweh is fighting for them against Egypt!”
26 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may come back on the Egyptians, on their chariots and horsemen.” 27 So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea returned to its normal depth. While the Egyptians were trying to escape from it, the Lord threw them into the sea. 28 The waters came back and covered the chariots and horsemen, the entire army of Pharaoh, that had gone after them into the sea. None of them survived.
Archaeologists have found ancient Egyptian chariots at the bottom of the sea along this route.
Here’s a short video from the John 10:10 Project about the underwater research off Nuweiba Beach. (9 mins)
On the other side of the Red Sea, the Israelites start complaining immediately.
Exodus 16: 1 The entire Israelite community departed from Elim and came to the Wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had left the land of Egypt. 2 The entire Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by pots of meat and ate all the bread we wanted. Instead, you brought us into this wilderness to make this whole assembly die of hunger!”
That’s exactly how I feel on day 3 of a coffee fast—kill me now. 😩
Exodus 16: 11 The Lord spoke to Moses, 12 “I have heard the complaints of the Israelites. Tell them: At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will eat bread until you are full. Then you will know that I am Yahweh your God.”
13 So at evening quail came and covered the camp. In the morning there was a layer of dew all around the camp. 14 When the layer of dew evaporated, there were fine flakes on the desert surface, as fine as frost on the ground. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they asked one another, “What is it?” because they didn’t know what it was.
Moses told them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. 16 This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Gather as much of it as each person needs to eat. You may take two quarts per individual, according to the number of people each of you has in his tent.’”
17 So the Israelites did this. Some gathered a lot, some a little. 18 When they measured it by quarts, the person who gathered a lot had no surplus, and the person who gathered a little had no shortage. Each gathered as much as he needed to eat. 19 Moses said to them, “No one is to let any of it remain until morning.” 20 But they didn’t listen to Moses; some people left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and smelled. Therefore Moses was angry with them.
The Israelites lived as communists, just like the early Christian church. We will discuss verse 18 further in a later story. They move on from the “Wilderness of Sin”, but again, they are dying of thirst in the desert.
Exodus 17: 5 The Lord answered Moses, “Go on ahead of the people and take some of the elders of Israel with you. Take the staff you struck the Nile with in your hand and go. 6 I am going to stand there in front of you on the rock at Horeb; when you hit the rock, water will come out of it and the people will drink.” Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 He named the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites complained, and because they tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
See if you can guess which one of these rocks was struck. The water erosion at the base of this thing makes no sense.
The Israelites eventually reach Mount Sinai, which is located in northwest Saudi Arabia. Today, they call it Jabal Maqla, which means “burnt mountain”. The reason it looks burnt is because it was burnt in Exodus 19.
Exodus 19: 16 On the third day, when morning came, there was thunder and lightning, a thick cloud on the mountain, and a loud trumpet sound, so that all the people in the camp shuddered. 17 Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. 18 Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke because the Lord came down on it in fire. Its smoke went up like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain shook violently. 19 As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him in the thunder.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a million. Here’s a video by Ryan Mauro who goes undercover in Saudi Arabia to demonstrate how the topography around Jabal Maqla exactly matches the description in Exodus. (25 mins)
Here’s a more “churchy” version from The Bible Explained called, Is the Real Mount Sinai in Arabia?. (20 mins)
The physical evidence for the story in Exodus is incredible. The mountaintop is still burnt, there’s an altar for animal sacrifices, pens for livestock, golden calf graffiti, and a split rock with water erosion at its base. 💯
@mathnerds: Here’s a test of your Cryptographic Bible Key knowledge.
In which chapter did God move to part the Red Sea?
In which chapter did Moses strike the rock, so fresh water could pour forth?
Here’s two bonus questions since we didn’t cover these chapters:
In which chapter did Moses place strong men as commanders over thousands and hundreds?
In which chapter did God provide the Ten Commandments? Hint: witness order
Starving Our Addictions
Did you see how desolate Mount Sinai is in those videos? There’s a reason why God took the Israelites there after 430 years of slavery. The Israelites were still conditioned to live as slaves. It doesn’t matter if you are enslaved to a daily porn habit, a daily drinking habit, a daily Instagram habit, a daily sugar habit, or a daily coffee habit—whatever it is, God can help you walk away from it. God probably sent you a Moses or two already.
Jesus says the only way we can eliminate some of “our demons” is with prayer and fasting. So asking God for help is the first step you need to take. Then, starving that habit in the desert is the second. Find someone who wants to make that journey with you, or better yet, find someone who has already been through recovery. They won’t judge you, they already know how difficult that Exodus will be.
Once you decide to escape your addictions, the journey won’t be easy. The cravings and desires to return will be severe.
Numbers 11: 4 The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat! 5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. 6 But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”
That is exactly what your fasts will feel like. If you drink coffee every day, switching to green tee will taste like manna. If you drink beer every day, switching to water will taste like manna. Manna, the bread from God, is boring. It tastes like the first time a kid eats salad for dinner. Yuck. Training new behaviors and desires into your “human animal” will take a long time, but eventually you will lose your old appetites.
It took the Israelites 40 years.
Their faith was tested.
Their self-control was tested.
Their endurance was tested.
Their patience was tested.
Any Israelite who couldn’t “keep the law” died somewhere in that wilderness long ago. Some parts of you need to die too. If you “put the plug in the jug” and stop drinking alcohol today, the next six months of your life will feel like 40 years. The only reason I don’t drink alcohol today is because I already know how long and boring it feels to quit drinking.
There’s.
just.
too.
much.
time.
in.
the.
day.
Candidly, I’m too scared to exodus again.
Let’s close this story by reading from the play, Henry V. Remember how Shakespeare invented the modern use of the word addiction? In this scene, the Bishop of Canterbury tells the Bishop of Ely about a tremendous transformation in the life of Prince Hal, who becomes King Henry V after his father dies.
BISHOP OF CANTERBURY: The courses of his youth promised it not. The breath no sooner left his father’s body But that his wildness, mortified in him, Seemed to die too. Yea, at that very moment Consideration like an angel came And whipped th’ offending Adam out of him, Leaving his body as a paradise T’ envelop and contain celestial spirits. Never was such a sudden scholar made, Never came reformation in a flood With such a heady currance scouring faults, Nor never Hydra-headed willfulness So soon did lose his seat, and all at once, As in this king.
BISHOP OF ELY: We are blessèd in the change.
BISHOP OF CANTERBURY: Hear him but reason in divinity And, all-admiring, with an inward wish You would desire the King were made a prelate; Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs, You would say it hath been all in all his study; List his discourse of war, and you shall hear A fearful battle rendered you in music; Turn him to any cause of policy, The Gordian knot of it he will unloose Familiar as his garter; that, when he speaks, The air, a chartered libertine, is still, And the mute wonder lurketh in men’s ears To steal his sweet and honeyed sentences; So that the art and practic part of life Must be the mistress to this theoric; Which is a wonder how his Grace should glean it, Since his addiction was to courses vain, His companies unlettered, rude, and shallow, His hours filled up with riots, banquets, sports, And never noted in him any study, Any retirement, any sequestration From open haunts and popularity.
BISHOP OF ELY: The strawberry grows underneath the nettle, And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best Neighbored by fruit of baser quality; And so the Prince obscured his contemplation Under the veil of wildness, which, no doubt, Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night, Unseen yet crescive in his faculty.
BISHOP OF CANTERBURY: It must be so, for miracles are ceased, And therefore we must needs admit the means How things are perfected.
Continue reading…
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