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The Russian Bolshevik Revolution in the year 1917 marked the beginning of one of the darkest chapters in the history of humanity. In the more than seventy years following its achievement of state power, communism claimed the lives of millions and millions of victims all over the world. Now, fifteen years after the demise of the system in the Soviet Union following its collapse in most communist countries in 1989, the counter is still running, as a small number of countries continue along the bloody Marxist path.

In the light of this reality, it is important for us to understand the essence of this ideology and how we can protect ourselves from its insidious influence.

We are going to use the story of the Israelites suffering as slaves in Egypt in the time of Moses as a metaphor for understanding the essence of life under a communist regime. Here are a few observations about this story that may help us understand life under communism:

• the growth of the people of God attracts the enmity of its enemies (Ex. 1:10);
• the enemy uses the pressure of hard work as a way of distracting the attention of the oppressed from their lack of freedom (Ex. 1:11–14);
• the oppressor may use sometimes birth control measures and interference in family life as a means to keep God’s people under control (Ex. 1:15–17);
• when God’s people are oppressed, although it may appear that God does not care, in reality he is very active in hidden ways on behalf of his people (Ex.1:20–21);
• oppression calls people not to rebellion against God but to prayer, because God hears the cry of his oppressed people (Ex. 2:23–25);
• God’s people are called to use creativity in order to overcome oppression (Ex 2:1–10);
• man’s creativity and God’s providence cooperate in order to provide a solution for the salvation of the people of God;
• God has a sense of humour; his solutions are sometimes ironic (Moses, the liberator of the Israelite slaves, grows up at the court of the oppressor, Pharaoh) (Ex. 2:10; Acts 7:20–23);
• civil disobedience is a legitimate choice when civil law contradicts God’s law (Ex. 1:17; 2:2);
• God rewards those who choose to obey God rather than men (Ex. 1:20);
• some members of the people of God may choose to use violence in opposing those who oppress them (Ex. 2:11–12), yet, without an explicit command from God, this does not have much chance of success (Ex. 2:15);
• God’s best instruments are not necessarily those who are quick to react (as Moses was when he killed the Egyptian) but are often reluctant servants who are more inclined to depend on God than on their own power (Ex. 3:11; 4:10);
• those who have the courage to oppose the oppressors have to accept the risk of having their hearts broken because of rejection from their own people, who think that their actions may only serve to increase the oppression (Ex. 2:13–14).