It was an interesting time for Pharaoh and the elites. They were vastly wealthy, controlling ninety-five percent of the wealth of the empire. They were supreme rulers of the land, but they had a problem: what to do with this troublesome people group.

According to legend, they were invited to live here in the distant past. But they bred like rabbits, and now they were threatening the status quo. Yes they had a problem, so Pharaoh came up with a plan. It was a good plan.

Pharaoh enacted laws that enabled him to use the criminal justice system to enslave this entire people group to the state. Not only did this relieve the threat that they posed, but it allowed for massive construction projects to be undertaken with virtually no labor cost, the likes of which the world had never seen.

Yes, Pharaoh had a plan, but <strong>God had another plan.</strong>

<em>"Look! The cry of the people of Israel has reached me, and I have seen how harshly the Egyptians abuse them. Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people out of Egypt."</em> (Exodus 3:9-10 NLT)

In ancient Egypt, God called one, then another, to stand up to Pharaoh with this simple message, "Let My people go!"

But I'm not talking about ancient Egypt.

In her book, <em>The New Jim Crow</em>, Michelle Alexander lays out the chilling story of the use of the criminal justice system to enslave a people to the state. Once in the system, any conviction carries a life sentence of legal discrimination in housing, job opportunity, educational assistance, and participation in the political process. The list goes on.

The war on drugs was implemented in 1982 by then President Ronald Reagan. Funded over the intervening years with hundreds of billions of dollars, it has changed the face of criminal justice in America. It led to massive construction of new state and federal prisons at unprecedented rates.

Ms Alexander states that the prison population has soared from roughly three hundred thousand in 1980 to, in 2007, more than seven million. Today, one in every thirty one adults is in the criminal justice system either imprisoned, or on probation or parole. And don't believe these are drug lords, or even for the most part drug dealers. Over eighty per cent of these new drug arrests were for simple possession of marijuana (page 59).

The war on drugs has been, and is being waged almost exclusively in inner-city neighborhoods populated primarily by our black and brown people groups. And once in the system, they are condemned to what I call "life on the installment plan". With all the legal discrimination they face when released, the vast majority are re-incarcerated within the first couple of years. In many states, a third felony conviction rates an automatic life sentence.

Ms Alexander calls it "The New Jim Crow". I call it systemic racism. And I am implicated. We are all implicated. As citizens of this country, this war is being conducted in our name and, for the most part, with our blessing. It is destroying the lives of our children, and they are <strong>our</strong> children. It has decimated a generation of young black and brown men and women, and is working on the next.

But God hears the cry of the people, and <strong>God has another plan.</strong>

God is calling one, then another to stand up to today's Pharaohs with a simple message. It is the same message He gave to Moses and Aaron. "Let My people go!"

So the question for me is:

Do I hear God’s call, and how will I respond to this group of the "least of these?"

To do nothing is to participate in Pharaoh's plan,

<strong>But God, by God, has another plan.</strong>