Bob Dylan, famously at the beginning of his Gospel Era, wrote: “You’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed you’re gonna have to serve somebody! Well, it may be the Devil or it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.” The underlying message of this song is that no matter who you are, where you are, or what you are doing, eventually we all have to serve somebody, and, therefore, if we have to serve someone, who should that someone be?
“L’chu nah, ha’g’varim v’ivdu et Adonai ki otah atem mvakshim!” Pharaoh said to Moses. “You, gentlemen, go and serve God, since that is what you want.” La’avod means to serve, to worship, and to work. The semantic range is such that we might understand the slavery experienced in Egypt as mere worship of Pharaoh! Avadim hayinu—we were worshippers of Pharaoh—only to be freed for the expressed purpose of going out to the desert to serve and worship God.
The questions we are thus faced with are: what does it mean to serve Pharaoh? What does it mean to serve God? What does it mean to be a slave for Pharaoh? What does it mean to be a slave to God? Can we, like John Lennon said in his rebuttal against Bob Dylan’s song, “Serve Yourself?”
Perhaps, then, by rejecting the oppressive service of Pharaoh, in favor of the uncertain even mystical service of a power and a purpose beyond ourselves, we might seek opportunities to serve ourselves and serve each other, not only in terms of worship but in true service to our communities.