Sunday we begin a series of sermons on the life of Moses beginning with his birth and placement in the Nile River. This week will be a bit unusual in that we’ll break the sermon down into three sections interspersed throughout the service. Here is a snippet from the first “scene” where Pharaoh is anxious over the presence of so many Hebrews in Egypt.
It’s interesting that the first person to speak in Exodus is the king (Exodus 1:9) and he’s giving an outline for a new national policy concerning this huge population of aliens in their midst. The temptation here is to draw a connection between Pharaoh’s fear of foreigners and our own. With immigration such a hot issue and the new laws in Arizona so much in the news, we could use this text to jump into the debate because Pharaoh’s fear is our fear. However, while a legitimate issue to consider it’s not exactly tailor made for our situation. There’s one very big difference. In Exodus the king is afraid they’ll escape—leave the land. He wants them to stay. He struggles to keep them in, not shut them out. Of course, this isn’t out of kindness or hospitality. He needs laborers, slaves and these folks are it.
