BIBLE STUDY: May 19th

The meeting opened with prayer

In the Scriptures, by the Spirit,
   May we see the Saviour's face,
Hear His word and heed His calling -
   Know His will and grow in grace.
Amen
 

 
Exodus, chap. 3

1

Meanwhile Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. Leading the flock across the desert, he came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

2

There an angel of the LORD appeared to him in fire flaming out of a bush. As he looked on, he was surprised to see that the bush, though on fire, was not consumed.

3

So Moses decided, "I must go over to look at this remarkable sight, and see why the bush is not burned."

4

When the LORD saw him coming over to look at it more closely, God called out to him from the bush, "Moses! Moses!" He answered, "Here I am."

5

God said, "Come no nearer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.

6

I am the God of your father," he continued, "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob." Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

7

But the LORD said, "I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry of complaint against their slave drivers, so I know well what they are suffering.

8

Therefore I have come down to rescue them from the hands of the Egyptians and lead them out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, the country of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.

9

So indeed the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have truly noted that the Egyptians are oppressing them.

10

Come, now! I will send you to Pharaoh to lead my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt."

11

But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and lead the Israelites out of Egypt?"

12

He answered, "I will be with you; and this shall be your proof that it is I who have sent you: when you bring my people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this very mountain."

13

"But," said Moses to God, "when I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' if they ask me, 'What is his name?' what am I to tell them?"

14

God replied, "I am who am." Then he added, "This is what you shall tell the Israelites: I AM sent me to you."

15

God spoke further to Moses, "Thus shall you say to the Israelites: The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. "This is my name forever; this is my title for all generations.

16

"Go and assemble the elders of the Israelites, and tell them: The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has appeared to me and said: I am concerned about you and about the way you are being treated in Egypt;

17

so I have decided to lead you up out of the misery of Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.

18

"Thus they will heed your message. Then you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him: The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent us word. Permit us, then, to go a three days' journey in the desert, that we may offer sacrifice to the LORD, our God.

19

"Yet I know that the king of Egypt will not allow you to go unless he is forced.

20

I will stretch out my hand, therefore, and smite Egypt by doing all kinds of wondrous deeds there. After that he will send you away.

21

I will even make the Egyptians so well-disposed toward this people that, when you leave, you will not go empty-handed.

22

Every woman shall ask her neighbor and her house guest for silver and gold articles and for clothing to put on your sons and daughters. Thus you will despoil the Egyptians."

Traditionally, Mount Horeb is identified with the mountain now called Sinai in the Sinai peninsular in modern Egypt. Here there is a Greek Orthodox monastery which contains what is purported to be the 'burning bush' that Moses saw. But it is not known if this is the correct mountain or not. Many modern scholars think it was further north, nearer to the border with modern Israel. We simply do not know.

We are told in verse 2 that an angel appeared to Moses in the fire; but from verse 4 onwards the apparition is spoken of as 'the LORD'. It must be remembered that 'angel' in Hebrew is melakh (מלאך) which means "messenger." In Christian tradition this is the Word, speaking to Moses, i.e. the second person of the Blessed Trinity. So, for example, the second of the 'Great O Antiphons', addressed to Our Lord and recited at Vespers in the week before Christmas, is:

O Adonái, et Dux domus Ísräel, qui Móysi in igne flammæ rubi apparuísti, et ei in Sina legem dedísti: veni ad rediméndum nos in bráchio exténto.

O Adonai, and leader of the House of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai: Come to redeem us with an outstretched arm.

The bush which "though on fire, was not consumed" is seen in Orthodox tradition as as 'type' (or prefiguration) of Our Lady since just as God's splendour blazed out from the bush without harming it, so Mary bore the incarnate Word of God without loss of her virginity.

In verse 14, God gives his name as I AM, i.e. the one who is exists of himself, the one who is the author of all being. For, as Saint Paul told the Athenians, in Christ "we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28). In the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, verse 14 is given as "I am the-one who-is (ὁ Ὦν) ...... The-one who-is (ὁ Ὦν) has sent you ..... ". On Greek Orthodox icons of Our Lord, the letters ὁ Ὦν (or upper case: Ὁ ὮΝ) always appear in the nimbus around Our Lord's head, thus identifying him with the one who spoke from the burning bush and the one who is the source of all existence. Saint John wrote of Jesus that "all things came to be in him , and without him nothing came to be" (John 1:3).

The author of Exodus is, in fact, giving meaning to the divine name יהוה (YHWH, or in the Latin spelling: JHVH). This name was regarded as so sacred that the Jews did not pronounce it. We do not know the original vocalization of the name (the form 'Yahweh' found in some modern translations is a guess at the original); the Jews read it as 'Adonai', the LORD. In the Septuagint it was always rendered by Kýrios (Κύριος), 'Lord'. In the Bible text above it is rendered as 'LORD'. The antiphon above retains the Hebrew 'Adonai' as its rendering of יהוה, the ineffable name of God.

 
Exodus, 13:1-14

1

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,

2

"This month shall stand at the head of your calendar; you shall reckon it the first month of the year.

3

Tell the whole community of Israel: On the tenth of this month every one of your families must procure for itself a lamb, one apiece for each household.

4

If a family is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join the nearest household in procuring one and shall share in the lamb in proportion to the number of persons who partake of it.

5

The lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish. You may take it from either the sheep or the goats.

6

You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, and then, with the whole assembly of Israel present, it shall be slaughtered during the evening twilight.

7

They shall take some of its blood and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel of every house in which they partake of the lamb.

8

That same night they shall eat its roasted flesh with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

9

It shall not be eaten raw or boiled, but roasted whole, with its head and shanks and inner organs.

10

None of it must be kept beyond the next morning; whatever is left over in the morning shall be burned up.

11

"This is how you are to eat it: with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand, you shall eat like those who are in flight. It is the Passover of the LORD.

12

For on this same night I will go through Egypt, striking down every first-born of the land, both man and beast, and executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt - I, the LORD!

13

But the blood will mark the houses where you are. Seeing the blood, I will pass over you; thus, when I strike the land of Egypt, no destructive blow will come upon you.

14

"This day shall be a memorial feast for you, which all your generations shall celebrate with pilgrimage to the LORD, as a perpetual institution.

The Egyptian Pharaoh (generally thought to be Ramesses II) did not want to allow the Hebrews to leave Egypt; they were too valuable as slaves. This brought on a series of plagues, each showing God's power over the false gods of the Egyptians. Despite enduring nine plagues, Pharaoh still refused to let the Hebrews leave; indeed, he made life harder for them. Thus Pharaoh's stubbornness brought on the final, terrible plague in which the first-born, both human and animals, were struck down. In this passage we have the instructions for the Passover meal which is to be a memorial feast for the Hebrews for all generations. It was one such memorial feast, the Seder, at which centuries later Our Lord instituted the Eucharist. This is, therefore, a prefiguration of the ultimate covenant, the new and everlasting covenant of Our Lord's Body and Blood.

The Jewish months begin with the new moon and the first month began at the new moon closest to the Spring Equinox. The fourteenth day, therefore, will occur more or less at the time of the full moon. This is how the Passover is calculated; it was at the Passover that Jesus was crucified. It is, therefore, why we calculate Easter as the Sunday following the full moon after the Spring Equinox.

The Seder, the Passover supper, is established as a memorial feast for all generations as a sign of God's covenant with Moses; this is also a prefiguration of the sacrifice of the Lamb of God and the institution of the Eucharist - the one, eternal sacrifice of the Mass.

 
Exodus, chap. 20

1

Then God delivered all these commandments:

2

"I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.

3

You shall not have other gods besides me.

4

You shall not carve idols for yourselves in the shape of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth;

5

you shall not bow down before them or worship them. For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishment for their fathers' wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation;

6

but bestowing mercy down to the thousandth generation, on the children of those who love me and keep my commandments.

7

"You shall not take the name of the LORD, your God, in vain. For the LORD will not leave unpunished him who takes his name in vain.

8

"Remember to keep holy the sabbath day.

9

Six days you may labor and do all your work,

10

but the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD, your God. No work may be done then either by you, or your son or daughter, or your male or female slave, or your beast, or by the alien who lives with you.

11

In six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the LORD has blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.

12

"Honor your father and your mother, that you may have a long life in the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you.

13

"You shall not kill.

14

"You shall not commit adultery.

15

"You shall not steal.

16

"You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

17

"You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male or female slave, nor his ox or ass, nor anything else that belongs to him."

18

When the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the trumpet blast and the mountain smoking, they all feared and trembled. So they took up a position much farther away

19

and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we shall die."

20

Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid, for God has come to you only to test you and put his fear upon you, lest you should sin."

21

Still the people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the cloud where God was.

22

The LORD told Moses, "Thus shall you speak to the Israelites: You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven.

23

Do not make anything to rank with me; neither gods of silver nor gods of gold shall you make for yourselves.

24

"An altar of earth you shall make for me, and upon it you shall sacrifice your holocausts and peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In whatever place I choose for the remembrance of my name I will come to you and bless you.

25

If you make an altar of stone for me, do not build it of cut stone, for by putting a tool to it you desecrate it.

26

You shall not go up by steps to my altar, on which you must not be indecently uncovered.

After the tenth plague the Hebrews are allowed to leave Egypt, though even then Pharaoh has a change of heart and tries to capture them as they cross the Red Sea. Eventually they arrive at Mount Sinai (Horeb) where Moses receives the Law from God, which we read in chapters 20, 21, 22 and 23. This opens with the Ten Commandments, which we read in verses 2 to 17 above.

There are in fact two versions of the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament, the one here and a later one in Deuteronomy 5:6-21; it is the second version that the Church has traditionally used. The most obvious difference is that "You shall not covet your neighbour's wife" appears separately before "You shall not desire your neighbour's house, his field ..... or anything that is your neighbours." At the Reformation, Calvin adopted the Exodus version and this is also the version adopted in the Anglican 'Book of Common Prayer' and has, therefore, become the version normally used by the Protestant churches; it is for that reason that the numbering of the commandments is, for the most part, out by one between Catholics and Protestants. The differences are summarized in the Compendium of the Catechism.

So what is Deuteronomy about? The word 'Deuteronomy' is derived from Greek deúteros nómos 'second law'. Some forty years after receiving the Law on Sinai, and all the first generation of Hebrew exiles had died except for Moses, Joshua and Caleb, Moses gave a second version of the Law to the Hebrews on the plain of Moab on the eastern borders of the Promised Land. Although this 'second Law' begins with, arguably, a slightly better version of the Ten Commandments, there followed a whole set of compromises - laws which, as Jesus was to say centuries later, Moses wrote "because of the hardness of your hearts" (Mark 10:5). God saw that the Hebrews were not yet ready to accept the Law given on Sinai and allowed Moses to include moral and legal compromises such as divorce and remarriage. It was to be Jesus who would restore God's original law - the fulfilment of the Law.

 
Exodus 24:1-11

1

Moses himself was told, "Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, with Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. You shall all worship at some distance,

2

but Moses alone is to come close to the LORD; the others shall not come too near, and the people shall not come up at all with Moses."

3

When Moses came to the people and related all the words and ordinances of the LORD, they all answered with one voice, "We will do everything that the LORD has told us."

4

Moses then wrote down all the words of the LORD and, rising early the next day, he erected at the foot of the mountain an altar and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.

5

Then, having sent certain young men of the Israelites to offer holocausts and sacrifice young bulls as peace offerings to the LORD,

6

Moses took half of the blood and put it in large bowls; the other half he splashed on the altar.

7

Taking the book of the covenant, he read it aloud to the people, who answered, "All that the LORD has said, we will heed and do."

8

Then he took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, saying, "This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words of his."

9

Moses then went up with Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel,

10

and they beheld the God of Israel. Under his feet there appeared to be sapphire tilework, as clear as the sky itself.

11

Yet he did not smite these chosen Israelites. After gazing on God, they could still eat and drink.

After giving the Law on Sinai, the Hebrews enter into a solemn and sacred blood bond with God. So Moses had brought the various tribes of Israel out from slavery in Egypt and now formed them into a nation with a code of law to which they solemnly bound themselves.

We saw here a prefiguration of the Covenant that Christ, the fulfilment of the Law and Prophets, will enter into with all mankind in his "blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins" (Matt. 26:28).
 

The meeting closed with prayer.

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Most of the scripture texts on this page are taken from the New American Bible with Revised New Testament and Revised Psalms © 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C.