Friday, April 23<\/b><\/p>\n
Exodus 12: There are four features especially to be noted about this important text that interrupts the narrative sequence in order to place the whole into a more theological and liturgical context:<\/p>\n
First, the paschal lamb is an example of \u201csubstitutionary\u201d sacrifice; like the ram that had replaced Isaac on Mount Moriah in Genesis 22:13, the paschal lamb\u2019s life is given in place of the lives of Israel\u2019s first-born sons.<\/p>\n
Second, there is nothing in the text to suggest that this sacrifice is \u201cexpiatory.\u201d That is, unlike certain other biblical sacrifices, such as those associated with Yom Kippur, the sacrifice of the paschal lamb is not made in reparation for sins. Moreover, the Old Testament provides not a single example of an animal being sacrificed in place of a human being whose sin was serious enough to merit death.<\/p>\n
Third, the blood of this paschal lamb is sprinkled at certain points of the houses of those who are \u201credeemed.\u201d This sprinkling is explicitly said to be a \u201csign\u201d of covenant protection, parallel to the rainbow in the covenant with Noah in Genesis 9:12-17 and circumcision in the covenant with Abraham in Genesis 17:19-27.<\/p>\n
Fourth, because this paschal lamb was a type or symbol of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross (cf. 1 Corinthians 5:7), it was fitting that the meal celebrating the new covenant in His blood should be inaugurated in the setting of the paschal seder (cf. Luke 22:15-20).<\/p>\n
The \u201cthis day\u201d of verse 14 is the fifteenth day of the month Nisan, but it includes the night of Pascha. Pascha itself was to be the first liturgical day of an entire \u201cweek of sabbaths,\u201d that is, seven days of rest and festival continuing the celebration, during which Israel could eat unleavened bread as on Pascha itself. More regulations relative to this weeklong feast are to be found in 13:3-10. In the New Testament the two terms, Pascha and the Feast of the Unleavened Bread, are used almost interchangeably.<\/p>\n
After the lengthy and detailed instructions that prepare for it, the tenth plague is narrated very succinctly, to great dramatic effect. The Exodus itself follows at once. In the writings of the New Testament, the event especially served as a prefiguration and type of redemption, including all of the events narrated of that great week, both His death for our sins and His rising again for our justification.<\/p>\n
So important was the liturgical observance of Pascha to the life of the early Christians that one of the major and most heated controversies of the second century Church concerned the proper dating of the feast. In spite of a venerable tradition held in Ephesus and the other churches of Asia Minor, it was finally determined that Pascha would always be celebrated on a Sunday, a rule that has been maintained by all Christians since the fourth century.<\/p>\n
In verses 43-50 we find more regulations relative to the preparation of the Seder of Pascha. As was noted above, there was no disagreement among the early Christians with respect to the deeper meaning of the paschal lamb. Indeed, verse 46 here, about not breaking the bones of the paschal lamb while preparing it, was seen by St. John as a prophecy of the body of Jesus on the cross, in that the soldiers did not break His legs (cf. John 19:36).<\/p>\n
Saturday, April 24<\/b><\/p>\n
John 6.1-14: The Evangelist begins by telling us, \u201cJesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, \u201cWhere shall we buy bread, that these may eat?\u201d But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do\u201d (John 6:5\u20136).<\/p>\n
What, we are justified in asking, was accomplished by this question to Philip, since Jesus already \u201cknew what He would do\u201d? His question here served the purpose of evoking the assistance of the apostles in what was about to take place.<\/p>\n
Jesus did not ask that question for Philip\u2019s sake, I believe, but for Andrew\u2019s. They were a pair. He knew that wherever you saw Philip, Andrew must be nearby. The question was apparently meant to be overheard by Andrew, who promptly replied, \u201cThere is a lad here who has five barley buns and a couple of dried fish\u201d (John 6:9). Now they could get started!<\/p>\n
Thus, by putting to Philip a question to which he already knew the answer, Jesus transformed these apostles\u2014Andrew and Philip, in particular\u2014from mere spectators to active participants in the experience of the multiplication of the loaves. It is they who will seat the people for the meal (John 6:10).<\/p>\n
It is they who will distribute the bread and fish (6:11). In this scene, then, Jesus\u2019 question both commences the event and provides for its participatory structure.<\/p>\n
Exodus 13: By the regulations contained in these sections, Israel would be reminded of the Exodus every time a first-born son came into the world. Each such son would have to be \u201credeemed\u201d by the sacrifice of a lamb. Elsewhere we learn that, for poorer families that could not afford the price of a lamb, the redemption could be made by sacrificing two pigeons or turtledoves (cf. Leviticus 12:8). We are familiar with one very notable family that took advantage of that humane and gentle provision (cf. Luke 2:22-24). This particular \u201cFirstborn\u201d would, by His sacrificial death, be the redemption of all humanity.<\/p>\n
In verse 17 the inspired author gives us a picture of what line of reasoning is taking place in the mind of God. It is intimated here that God has a plan yet to unfold. This marvelous detail in verse 19 ties our story back to Genesis 24f. and forward to Joshua 24:32 (cf. the comment in Hebrews 11:22).<\/p>\n
Sunday, April 25<\/b><\/p>\n
Exodus 14: In the previous chapter (13:17) we already learned that God had a plan. Now it will be enacted. Pharaoh is being \u201cset up.\u201d As if the destruction of the first-born sons had not been enough, Pharaoh is coming back for more punishment. On the other hand, God intends this encounter, as He knows what Pharaoh is thinking. If Pharaoh is rash enough to do battle with the Lord, he will simply have to take his chances. Meanwhile, God\u2019s plan remains a secret, even to Moses.<\/p>\n
Pharaoh does not know that his own plan has already been subsumed into God\u2019s larger plan (verses 5-9). Thus his very strategy against Israel becomes a component of his own destruction. Compare this with the way the New Testament pictures the plan of Satan being subsumed into Christian redemption (cf. John 13:2; 1 Corinthians 2:8).<\/p>\n
The command to \u201cstand\u201d (verse 13) is more than a matter of posture. It is a summons to steadfast faith; cf. Psalm 5:3 \u2014 \u201cIn the morning I will stand before You, and I will see.\u201d The Lord portrays Himself as a warrior for Israel (verse 14), something to which the Egyptians themselves will testify in 14:25. The image of God as a \u201cfighter\u201d for Israel will appear again in Deuteronomy 1:30; 3:22; 20:4, and it will be taken up again in the narratives of the conquest; cf. Joshua 10:14,22; 23:3. The people must, therefore, \u201cbe silent.\u201d When God is in the act of saving, it is best that man refrain from making comments about it, which will inevitably be distracting or even worse.<\/p>\n
Although by now Moses is aware that God has a plan, he does not yet know what that plan is. God does not explain Himself; He simply gives an order that must be obeyed in faith (verses 15-18). Indeed, God rather often does this (cf. John 2:8; 6:10; 9:7; 11:39). Few things are more arrogant in a religious person than the refusal to obey orders that one does not understand; we are dealing with God, after all, whom we shall never \u201cunderstand.\u201d<\/p>\n
God has told Moses what to do; now God provides His own part in the plan. The text is clear that the mysterious quality of the cloud comes from an angelic presence (cf. Exodus 23:20; 32:34; Numbers 20:16). The traditional liturgical texts of the Church identify the angel here as Michael, who battles for God\u2019s people; cf. Daniel 10:13,21; 12:1; Revelation 12:7. The cloud follows the people right into the sea, shrouding them in darkness; cf. Joshua 24:6f. St. Paul explains for Christians the meaning of this double experience of the cloud and the sea; cf. 1 Corinthians 10:1f.<\/p>\n
As in creation God had separated water from water (Genesis 1:6), He does so here (verses 21-22) in a symbol of the new creation. The imagery of the opening verses of Genesis all return now: light\/darkness, water\/dry land, and, especially, Spirit\/wind. On the relationship of creation to the Exodus, cf. Wisdom 19:4-8. The two texts from Genesis and Exodus are read together in the Church\u2019s Vigil of Pascha, which was traditionally the preferred time of baptism. The images of Spirit, light, and water were part of the Church\u2019s baptismal catechesis from the very beginning (cf. Hebrews 6:4-6).<\/p>\n
Since the destruction of the Egyptian forces is the major type of the destruction of demonic powers in the waters of baptism, it is not surprising that the biblical poets loved to rhapsodize over the scene of the Egyptian forces lying dead on the shore (cf., for example, Habakkuk 3:8-15; Wisdom 10:18-20, and many places in the Book of Psalms). This was a sight that Israel was commanded never to forget (cf. Deuteronomy 11:1-4). This scene by the seaside, combined with Exodus 15, will return in the vision of St. John; cf. Revelation 15:1-3.<\/p>\n
Monday, April 26<\/b><\/p>\n
Exodus 15: The people of God have been hymn-singers right from the beginning. The singing of hymns is the Bible\u2019s normal response to the outpouring of salvation; cf. Judges 5, 2 Samuel 22, Judith 10, many Psalms, etc. This particular canticle, which has been sung by Holy Church at her Paschal vigil from time immemorial, celebrates the Lord\u2019s victory over the oppression inspired of idolatry. It should be thought of as the song of the newly baptized, standing at their baptismal waterside, their demonic enemies drowned in its depths.<\/p>\n
It is not only the song of Moses and Miriam, but it is also the song of the Lamb, a prefiguration of that heavenly chant sung by the \u201csea of glass mingled with fire,\u201d sung after the \u201clast plagues,\u201d sung by those who, with \u201charps of God,\u201d \u201chave victory over the beast\u201d: \u201cGreat and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the saints!\u201d (Revelation 15:1-3).<\/p>\n
The encounter of Israel with God on Mount Sinai, which begins in chapter 19, will be bracketed between two sequences of desert stories, which provide a narrative frame in which the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai forms the center. We begin the first of these two sequences now, and the second will commence in Numbers 20. These two desert sequences contain some striking parallel narratives: the peoples\u2019 murmuring (Exodus 15, 16, 17; Numbers 14, 16, 17), the manna and the quail (Exodus 16; Numbers 11), and the water from the rock (Exodus 17; Numbers 20).<\/p>\n
The murmuring we find at the end of this chapter and into the next is nothing new, of course; the people have been murmuring since the Book of Exodus began, and we will be observing more about it as the account progresses. Here the murmuring is heard with respect to thirst, which is notoriously a problem in the desert.<\/p>\n
The murmuring is rebellious, for the people\u2019s anger is turned on Moses and is recalcitrant to his authority. They no longer \u201cbelieved the Lord and Moses His servant\u201d (14:31). This story is taken up in John 6, where the \u201cmurmuring in the desert\u201d is directed against Jesus. The descendents of the murmurers in Exodus, immediately after the feeding of the people by miraculous bread in the desert, begin to murmur and ask for a sign (John 6:30). Then begins the Lord\u2019s Bread of Life discourse, in which He contrasts the ancient manna with the superior bread of His own Eucharistic flesh (John 6:48-58).<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the rebels continue to murmur (John 6:41,43). Just as the people murmured against the authority of Moses, now they murmur against the authority of Jesus. It should also be remembered that it was precisely in the context of the Holy Eucharist that St. Paul warned against the sin of murmuring (1 Corinthians 10:10).<\/p>\n
Tuesday, April 27<\/b><\/p>\n
Psalms 136 (Greek & Latin 135): it is of our own election in Christ that we sing in this psalm, \u201cFor the Lord has chosen Jacob for Himself, Israel for His own possession.\u201d<\/p>\n
This election of the Church is not an afterthought in salvation history. It is what God had in mind, rather, from the very beginning of His choices. Abraham, Isaac, David, whoever was chosen, was chosen for the sake of Christ, and we ourselves are chosen in Christ. This awareness of God\u2019s choice from the beginning of biblical history is the font and motive of that very thanksgiving that identifies the Church. Thus wrote St. Paul: \u201cBut we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ\u201d (2 Thess. 2:13, 14).<\/p>\n
Moreover, this \u201celection\u201d is a reality \u201cknown\u201d to the Church, a component of the Church\u2019s self-awareness. This does not mean, as some later Christians wrongly argued, that each individual Christian can infallibly foreknow his final perseverance in grace, as though the Christian becomes incapable of apostasy and final loss. Ultimate perseverance is not a matter of our infallible knowledge. If this were so, the Bible would contain none of its dire warnings against apostasy and final loss. What this truth means, rather, is that the Church herself is infallibly aware of being God\u2019s own Chosen People, His elect in Christ.<\/p>\n
And this knowledge is real knowledge. Thus, within the opening lines of the earliest book of the New Testament, St. Paul tells the newly converted Thessalonians that they should be \u201cknowing, beloved brethren, your election (eklogen<\/i>) by God\u201d (1 Thess. 1:4).<\/p>\n
Exodus 16: The bitter water is sweetened and made potable by the tree placed in it, this tree often being interpreted in Christian history as symbolic of the Lord\u2019s cross, that salvific tree that sweetens many of our bitter experiences in the desert of our Christian journey.<\/p>\n
The manna is spoken of much more than the quail. There are two reasons for this: (1) On only two occasions does the Bible speak of the quail, whereas the manna will remain the people\u2019s staple food for the next forty years. And (2) The manna received far more theological attention during the course of Israel\u2019s long history. Speculations about the nature of the manna continued in Israel well into Talmudic times.<\/p>\n
Similarly, in the memory of the early Church it is obvious that, with respect to the miraculous feeding with the loaves and fishes, the loaves were the element chiefly remembered, inasmuch as the bread was understood—like the manna—as a prefiguration of the Holy Eucharist.<\/p>\n
This is \u201cdaily\u201d bread, in the sense that God\u2019s people must trust Him each day to provide it. They are to leave tomorrow to His care. The bread, then, becomes the daily occasion of faith in God\u2019s providing. It is the bread for which Jesus commanded us to ask God, \u201cgive us, this day\u201d (Matthew 6:11; Didache<\/i> 8.2), or \u201cday by day\u201d (Luke 11:3). As long as our pilgrimage lasts—until the other side of the Jordan (cf. Joshua 5:12)—this bread will be supplied to God\u2019s people, so that they must not fear nor fret for the morrow (cf. Matthew 6:25-34).<\/p>\n
Wednesday, April 28<\/b><\/p>\n
Psalms 139 (Greek & Latin 138): With some exceptions, the psalms are generally not to be recited very fast. Indeed, the structure of some of them shows that considerable care has been taken to slow the pace down. There is a pronounced disposition to say many things twice or more, for instance, so that the mind is not permitted to race on to the next idea right away.<\/p>\n
The present psalm may serve to illustrate this extensive characteristic. The Psalmist could have written, very simply, \u201cLord, Your knowledge of me is total.\u201d This brief statement would have said, in essence, what the first strophe of this psalm does say: \u201cLord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thoughts from afar. You encompass my paths and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. A word is not yet on my tongue, but You know it already.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here, instead of one verb to describe God\u2019s knowledge of the heart, the author uses six. Obviously he wants to dwell on the thought; he is not anxious to leave it. He wants the conviction to sink deeply into his soul that God knows him through and through, so he comes at the idea from a variety of angles and aspects—search and know, sitting down and rising up and lying down, paths and ways, thoughts and words.<\/p>\n
The psalm continues in the same vein: \u201cYou have beset me behind and before and laid Your hand upon me.\u201d He is not content to say that this idea is transcendent; he must say it twice: \u201cSuch knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Exodus 17: Like the other events associated with the Exodus, the stream of water miraculously struck from the rock was adopted by the early Christians for its spiritual significance. Drawing on this inspiration, 1 Corinthians 10:4 said that the people \u201cdrank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two remarks should be made with respect to this latter text:<\/p>\n
First, in calling the rock \u201cspiritual,\u201d St. Paul did not intend to deny that it was a physical rock. He had in mind, rather, to say that the physical rock was possessed of a spiritual significance, both as the medium of God\u2019s special intervention, and as a symbol of Jesus the Lord, who provides us with the water of eternal life (cf. also John 4:10-14; 7:37-39). Thus, St. Paul said, \u201cthat rock was Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
Second, the somewhat surprising detail that the rock in the desert \u201cfollowed them\u201d is derived from rabbinical reflection on the rock. After all, is this not the same rock as in Numbers 20, from which water miraculously flowed at Kadesh?<\/p>\n
Rabbinical texts speak of this as a kind of rocky fountain from which water poured as through a sieve, and they describe it as traveling up and down the mountain ranges while the people wandered in the desert. This rabbinical speculation about the moving rock is witnessed in an ancient targumic (Aramaic paraphrase) version of Exodus, known as the Targum Onkelos, probably inspired by Isaiah 48:21. The rabbinical scholar Paul was completely at home in these traditions.<\/p>\n
For Christian interpreters the picture of Moses praying on the mountain with outstretched arms (verses 8-13) became a type of Jesus praying for mankind with outstretched arms on Mount Calvary. Moreover, the 3rd century commentator, Origen, wrote that this passage in Exodus \u201cis fulfilled whenever we pray in the power of the Cross of Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thursday, April 29<\/b><\/p>\n
Exodus 18: The story of Jethro (verses 1-12) and the institution of the judges (verses 13-27) represent a chronological departure, it appears, from the historical sequence. There are two indications of this departure: First, Israel is still encamped at Rephidim (17:1 and 19:1), whereas the events in chapter 18 take place at Mount Sinai (verse 5). Second, there is the testimony of Deuteronomy 1 that the institution of the judges took place after<\/i> the Sinai Covenant.<\/p>\n
There is no theological or exegetical difficulty, of course, in discovering here a departure of the story from the historical sequence. After all, there is no a priori<\/i> necessity requiring the biblical narrative to follow the historical sequence. However, if we look more closely at the accounts in chapter 18, there seem to be two reasons that prompted the biblical author to put the stories in chapter 18 before<\/i> describing the Sinai Covenant.<\/p>\n
First, this arrangement is less disruptive to the narrative. Placing these events in chapter 18 before the Sinai narrative permits the biblical author, when he comes to treat of the Covenant, to concentrate attention on the particulars of the Law, without the relative distraction of these other matters. The author reasonably preferred to tell this story earlier than it happened.<\/p>\n
Second, a story about the sacrifice of the pagan Jethro at Mount Sinai would be most unseemly if it were told after<\/i> the institution of the priesthood and sacrifice in the prescriptions of the Covenant (Leviticus 8-10).<\/p>\n
What, then, do we find in chapter 18?<\/p>\n
To this point all of the great burden of leadership has fallen on Moses, though we did begin to see the gradual emergence of some other leadership, especially that of Joshua, in the previous chapter. In the present chapter, however, Moses accepts the counsel of Jethro and lays a broader foundation for the leadership of the people. It is particularly striking that this counsel comes from \u201coutside\u201d the chosen people. Indeed, it is the advice of a pagan priest! The willingness of Moses to accept the prudent counsel of an \u201cefficiency expert\u201d from outside the community, even in regard to his prophetic and pastoral ministry, seems to be a useful precedent for God\u2019s people to bear in mind. This response of Moses to the suggestion of Jethro is thus of a piece with Israel\u2019s earlier \u201cdespoiling\u201d of the Egyptians.<\/p>\n
Friday, April 30<\/b><\/p>\n
Exodus 19: The Book of Exodus, having treated of Israel\u2019s deliverance, now speaks of Israel\u2019s election and the Covenant. Over the next six chapters two sections will emerge as especially prominent\u2014the Decalogue (20:1-17) and the Book of the Covenant (20:22\u201423:19), the latter containing a detailed, practical application of the rules of the Covenant.<\/p>\n
The things narrated in these chapters are not naked events, but events that received theological and liturgical elaboration reflected in the narrative. It is arguable that Israel devoted more attention to these events than to any other in its history.<\/p>\n
The people have now arrived at Mount Sinai, where the rest of the Book of Exodus, and all of the Book of Leviticus, will take place. Indeed, the Israelites will not move from Sinai until Numbers 10:33.<\/p>\n
The stories begin with Moses\u2019 scaling of Mount Sinai (verse 3), still known among the local Arabs as Jebel Musa<\/i>. This peak, 7467 feet high, can be climbed in under two hours. When Moses ascends to speak with God, the people wait below at the base of the mountain, the plain of er-Raha<\/i> (verses 2,17).<\/p>\n
God\u2019s election of Israel (verses 5-6) is an invitation to become His chosen people, an invitation that marks Israel\u2019s history until the end of the world, because God will never reject the descendants of those with whom He made Covenant at Mount Sinai (cf. Romans 11:1). What God proposes, however, is only an invitation, requiring Israel\u2019s ratification of His choice and the resolve to abide by its conditions and strictures (verses 7-8). Moses mediates this Covenant (verses 9,25).<\/p>\n
The people of God are to be a \u201croyal priesthood, a holy nation\u201d (verse 6). Both the kingship and the priesthood of the Old Testament are prophetic preparations fulfilled in Jesus. Like Melchizedek of old, Jesus Christ is both king and priest (cf. Hebrews 7:1-3). Moreover, because of their awareness of sharing in the royal and priestly dignity and ministries of the risen Jesus, the early Christians were prompt to see this Exodus promise as fulfilled in the Church (cf. 1 Peter 2:9; Revelation 1:6; 5:10; 20:6).<\/p>\n
The subsequent terrifying scene on Mount Sinai (verses 9-25 and 20:18-20) is contrasted with the invitation to Christians to \u201cdraw near\u201d to God (Hebrews 12:18-24). The theme of a bold \u201cdrawing near to\u201d or \u201capproaching\u201d the divine presence is an important one in the Epistle to the Hebrews, serving as part of its sustained contrast of Christ with Moses (cf. Hebrews 4:16; 7:19; 10:1,22).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Friday, April 23 Exodus 12: There are four features especially to be noted about this important text that interrupts the narrative sequence in order to place the whole into a more theological and liturgical context: First, the paschal lamb is an example of \u201csubstitutionary\u201d sacrifice; like the ram that had replaced Isaac on Mount Moriah … Continue reading April 23 – April 30, 2021<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1707"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1707"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1708,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1707\/revisions\/1708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}