Sermon | Free to give
Scripture | Exodus 5:1-23; 23:19
Sermon: Joel Miller
Mitzrayim. That’s the Hebrew word for Egypt. And, it’s almost indistinguishable from the word meaning a narrow place, or a strait. A place of constriction. The rabbis have long made the connection between the two, sometimes using the words interchangeably: “Egypt,” and “the narrow place.” Mitzrayim. To be in Egypt, is to be confined to the narrow place. To be delivered out of Egypt is to be delivered out of the narrow place.
Last week, when we read about Moses talking with the burning bush/divine voice, it included these words from God: “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt, Mitzrayim, The Narrow Place…and I have come down to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.” Exodus is a story that moves from Order, to Disorder, to Re-Order. It’s also a story that moves from narrowness to spaciousness.
For those of us who have never lived in Egypt but find ourselves often stuck in the narrow place, it’s a way of finding ourselves more directly in this story of Exodus. ...