The word ‘Space’ in Hebrew means SALVATION. I believe it’s GOD’S way of giving us space to move and grow in freedom.
Eugene Peterdon writes, “The human race is in trouble. We’ve been in trouble for a long time. Enormous energy have been and continues to be expended by many, many men and women to get us out of the trouble we are in — to clean the world’s mess. The skill, the perseverance, the intelligence, the devotion of the people who put their shoulders to the wheel — to pull us out of the muck — parents, teachers, healers, and counselors, rulers and politicians, writers and pastors– are impressive.
“At the center and core of this work is GOD. The most comprehensive term for what God is doing to get us out of this mess we are in is salvation. Salvation is GOD doing for us what we can’t do for ourselves. Salvation is the biggest word in the vocabulary of the people if GOD. The Exodus is a powerful and dramatic and true story of God working Salvation. The story has generated an extra-ordinary progeny through centuries as it has reproduced itself in song and poem, drama and novel, politics and social justice, changing and conversation, worship and holy living. It continues to capture the imagination of men and women in trouble.
It is significant that God does not present us salvation in the form of an abstract truth, or a precise definition or catchy slogan, but as a story with plots and characters which is to say, with designs an personal relationships. Stories invites us to participate, first through our imaginations and then, if we will by faith. The Exodus story continues to be a major means that GOD uses to draw men and women out of the mess of history into the kingdom of salvation.
The book of Exodus was traditionally written by Moses. But God of Israel is the hero of the tale — Moses was his sidekick– a man as tough and supple as an old boot, all too aware of his shortcomings and failures, worn down by life to the point where he’d given up on getting his own way and God’s way was all that mattered.
Free from slavery — but it was hard to focus on the mighty acts of God when everyday involved a struggle to survive.