The Book of Exodus continues the story of Genesis. Four hundred years have passed since Joseph and Jacob had gone down to Egypt, and during these years God remained silent. He had to wait patiently until his children called to him before he took action.

We cannot help but wonder if their stay in Egypt would have not been shortened had someone amongst the Israelites called to God saying, "Lord, you gave our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob another land. A land flowing with milk and honey. Twice did you warn us not to go down to Egypt, and yet here we are, enjoying our stay here long after the drought that brought Israel down. We have sinned before your face. Forgive us and bring us home."

But they did not, preferring to live in the comfort of Goshen. So often, God's punishment is wrapped in the very thing we desire, when this desire takes us away from him. So he raises an Egyptian king known under the anonymous title of Pharaoh, a man who did not know Jacob and Joseph -- that is a man who opposes God -- to persecute them. The Israelites cry out to God but their cries are imperfect: they want God to meddle in politics. "Please God, remove this tyrant and let us be. Do not take heed of the fact that we are disobeying the covenant you instituted with Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph. Do please overlook our vices and our attachments to the Egyptian lifestyle. Just remove Pharaoh and leave us alone."

When Scripture says "God heard," it does not mean that physically because, after all, God has no physical ear to hear with. What it means is that God is ready to give us what we need -- not what we want. 

So God sends Moses. He makes him an Egyptian arrogant Prince, prone to anger like his adoptive father. Moses kills a man and when the Israelites chide him publicly, his anger turns to cowardice and he flees, he runs away leaving everything behind.

But God, who is Mercy, does not abandon him. He knows what this crime Moses committed is going to end up costing him. He knows his Son will die on the Cross for this crime and every other crime mankind has committed and will commit. He also knows that Moses will pay for this crime by carrying Israel on his shoulders for forty years, but that is still to come.

In this talk, we explore the early life of Moses. Our study is centered on five main themes:

1. To know, to serve, and to Love God
2. Moses recapitulates in his person the covenant with Noah, Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph
3. Complete Reliance on God
4. Complete Reliance on Self and the State
5. The Role of Women.

Art in logo by By Jacques Stella - Sotheby Lot.55 --Public Domain.

Moses, the Prince, ran away. He had killed a man and even though no one stopped him, God did not forget. Moses would pay for his crime and in the process, becomes a leader, a hero, a saint.

Living in Median, Moses became a shepherd and in that wilderness, God came to him. Moses could have offered sacrifice. He could have thought of God and walked with him like Abraham. But he didn't. Nothing is said about his religious practice and it is possible that he was neither believer nor unbeliever: simply lukewarm. 

God thought him in a burning bush and told him the one thing he did not want to hear: Go back to Egypt. Suddenly, the shame, the fear that years of solitude did not heal came back. God asked Adam, "Where are you hiding?" He asked Cain, "Where is your brother?" but to Moses, he told him, "Go save your brothers." 

Naturally, Moses refused. How could he not? Before God's holiness, man is inadequate. So God conforms his plan to Moses' state. "Your brother Aaron will speak..." 

By anyone's standard, Moses was inadequate. He was old, he stuttered, he had killed a man and ran away from the one who adopted him raised him, and made him his son. What is worse, Moses, an Israelite, did not keep the covenant; he did not circumcise his son. On the way to Egypt, God's wrath was raised against him and the Lord thought to kill him. But Zipporah, a woman! A Midianite ! did what was right before the Lord and saved her husband's life. By all accounts Moses was inadequate. 

And yet, where we, poor sinners, see a broken man, someone unfit for the job, God, in His unfathomable mercy, see an absolutely irreplaceable masterpiece, and He teaches us to rejoice in His Creation.

Suppose you left your place of birth and lived elsewhere for a long time. How would you like to go back home and destroy it so that God's will be done?

God's initial instructions to Moses were simple: Tell Pharaoh to let my people take a three-day's journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifice. The request was liturgical, not political. But when we let the things of this world cloud our will and understanding, we begin to see them in our own image: deceitful, evil, dangerous. Pharaoh did not hear liturgy; he heard laziness, an indication, perhaps of his own slothfulness. His suspicion led him to see ill-intent where there were none and his tyranny increased. 

God's first seven plagues were signs; signs to Pharaoh. These were acts of God's mercy towards Egypt. He needed Pharaoh to recognize his humanity, reject his claim of the godhead and bow down to the Lord. 

But Pharaoh saw a challenge, a battle of wills, a test of endurance. Pity how we often pile-up grief upon grief on ourselves and our loved ones when we try to impose our will on the Divine Will. Centuries later, the Son of Man will tell his contemporaries, "you have eyes and you do not see, you have ears and you do not hear."

In this lecture, we study the first seven plagues, and as we see God inflicting these terrible punishments on Egypt we cannot help but ask ourselves a simple question: If I were Pharaoh, what would have I done? What am I doing today?

God's mercy is without limit for the repentant but no so for those who harden their hearts. It's one thing for you and me to harden our hearts and quite a different matter when God hardens our hearts. God is indeed merciful but there is a limit to His acts of Mercy.

The last three plagues differ from the first seven in intensity, in power, and in effect. The locust invasion is devastating, while the three days of darkness plunges men and beast into an abyss of fear and anxiety. Finally, when the last plague strikes, the firstborn of beast and men are dead. 

Mostly, though, it is the change of language that is striking. In the first six plagues, we mostly hear a tragic refrain: "and Pharaoh hardened his heart," but in these last three plagues, we hear a second, more potent refrain, "and God hardened Pharaoh's heart."

What is the difference between hardening one's heart and God's hardening our heart? When we freely choose to rebel against God, we set ourselves outside the flow of Grace. Grace is what keeps us human and when we move away from its saving light, our soul dries-up: our heart hardens. 

This ray of light shines into the world as a pure act of Mercy on God's part. As St. Bonaventure noted, "The mercy of God is infinite but his acts of mercy are not." Indeed, if his acts of mercy were infinite, no one would be condemned to Hell.

Therefore, when Scripture says, "God hardened Pharaoh's heart," we understand it to mean that the light of grace was no longer available to the Egyptian ruler. God, through the sacrifice of his Son, is always ready to show us mercy whenever we repent, but it is not the case that God will show us mercy no matter what. This would be contrary to his justice. 

Repentance is not a transitory act; it is the Christian way of life.

How do you celebrate a new feast against a backdrop of wailing mothers, crying over the death of their sons? Yet, this was the Lord's command.

History is written by the victor, they say, and the rendition of the Passover is no different. It is written from the point of view of God, not the Israelites nor the Egyptians. It is true that Passover celebrates freedom from bondage and the departure to the Promised Land. It is also true that Passover is the death of the first-born for innumerable families. Therefore, Passover is also emblematic of original sin. The human family is broken, unable to mend the rift Adam and Eve opened when they disobeyed.

Still, it would be a mistake to think that the death of the first-born is an act of cruelty on the part of a blood-thirsty deity; a comment common amongst atheists who deny the final reality of heaven and hell. God, in His mercy, has tried by gentler means to show the Egyptians (and through them, the rest of the world) that there is -- objectively speaking -- no other Divinity but Him. He is the only God and every act of worship to anything or anyone else takes man away from the truth. The Egyptians were told that Pharaoh was divine and his first-born son was divine as well. God showed them the truth: "dust you are and to dust, you shall return."

Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were established by God as a promise and a warning. A promise that He will lead his people -- anyone who believes in him -- to heaven, and a warning, that those who refuse to be led to the house of the Father will be cast outside that house, and outside, that is away from the loving warmth of the Trinity, there is nothing, nothing but indescribable eternal torture we call hell.

Photo in Logo by Daniel Lincoln on Unsplash

When we pray "Your will be done," how often do we realize that, by extension, we are praying "my will may not be done," and are we ready for the consequences?

God's will was done. Egypt was defeated, Moses, despite all his weaknesses, led his people out of Egypt and into the wilderness. The Israelites followed but their hearts trailed behind. Their feet carried them but their mind was already in a rebellious state: They resented leaving Egypt.

Imagine you had a posh life in a good neighborhood, where your father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-great-grandfather lived. For as long as you can remember, your lineage was rooted in this good land. Then, one day, a dictator comes into power and turns you and your family into slaves. 

Would you then pray "Dear God, please remove this dictator and give us a good government," or "Dear God, please run this country to the ground, uproot me, my family, and my entire community and take us to the desert so that we can worship you in the wilderness?"

The Israelites were happy Pharaoh was defeated. They were not as happy to leave Egypt for some faraway land on account of a faint promise given to an ancient ancestor of theirs. 

Likewise, our views are selfish, limited in scope, and focused on our immediate needs. God's views are very different and as we walk alongside the Israelites into the wilderness we will learn the meaning of these words: "Your will be done."

What will you do if God takes you from the beach into the wilderness, to walk after a frail old leader who does not have a strategy, nor sufficient resources to feed you and your loved ones?

Nothing is as we think it will be with God. He gives way more than we think we need, expects way more than we think we can do, and loves us way more than we think we deserve to be loved. 

So, unable to walk like a saint, we rebel like sinners. 

No sooner than the last Israelite had set foot on the Red sea shore opposite Egypt that the first crisis erupts: how shall we drink? How shall we eat? On the psychological plane, these chapters of Scripture are a stern warning to all of us: without the grace of God and proper training in the virtues, man's inclination is to forget the daily goodness of the Lord and remember only the prayers gone unanswered, the disappointment and tragedies in life. Joy is not a feeling; it is a theological virtue that requires training. Joy is work and to work for the Lord is a joyful spirit. 

Then, when things seemed to level, war is at hand. We can see that God is walking Israel through two of the four classic plagues of the covenantal curse: famine and war, to test their hearts. Will these people remember all the signs He performed in Egypt? Will they trust him and learn to distrust their hearts? Will they understand his plan and live by his will?

Will you? Do you?

Picture God standing next to you while you are carving a golden calf for a worship ceremony you brought with you from Egypt. How many of the 10 commandments you would be violating? All of them.

The Golden Calf incident happens in chapter 32. We study it after the five incidents and before the 10 commandments for two reasons: The Golden Calf incident is one act of rebellion -- the most serious perhaps -- in an important list of events. We saw several in the previous talk and we will see more later in Exodus and then in Numbers. It is important to understand that the Golden Calf is not an isolated incident; it is symptomatic of a people who struggle with the notion of holiness. It would be a mistake, and a grave one at that, to look down on the people of Israel because of their failings to obey the law of holiness. Scripture is written for our instruction, St. Paul reminds us, therefore what we see the Israelites do, we are tempted to do as well.

The second reason why we are studying the event of the Golden Calf at this juncture is to help us focus on the tabernacle, its construction, and significance with no interruption. Clearly, the Golden Calf happens while God is giving Moses instructions on the building of the Tabernacle and before the construction began and a common misconception might lead one to equate Exodus with the 10 plagues, the crossing of the sea, the 10 commandments, and the Golden Calf. In fact, one-third of the book is devoted to the tabernacle, highlighting the importance of liturgy in Exodus.

The Ten Commandments were not given in a vacuum; The commandments were given within a theological, liturgical, and moral context that form the key to a correct understanding of the law.

The Ten Commandments are a covenant. A covenant has blessings and curses. This explains the "Thou shall not," reminiscent of the law (singular) God gave Adam and Eve: "You may not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for the day you shall eat of it, you shall surely die." 

What is the nature of this covenant? What does it mean to you and me? Is it still biding or is it a part of Scripture that fell in desuetude once the New Covenant was promulgated? 

We know the Ten Commandments are still binding but how should we read the preparation Moses and the Israelites went through to receive the ten commandments? What of the meal with the elders, what about the 40 days fast Moses endured?

More importantly, why did God give Moses the 10 commandments right before the instructions for the construction of the tabernacle? How are these two events related?

We shall endeavor to show that the Ten Commandments are best understood in a liturgical context the Lord instituted; a foreshadowing of Holy Thursday, the institution of the Eucharist, and the Mass.

This talk is concerned with the praxis of the Ten Commandments: the practical ways to obey the law in Sinai. By extrapolation, one may think about the practical ways through which we demonstrate our obedience to God's Law.

God is not interested in giving us la aw and letting us be. He is not an absentee God, watching over us from afar, and intervening only when we stray too far away. God should not be thought only in the judgment of Sodom and Gomorra, the plagues of Egypt or the destruction of the Golden Calf, for the Lord is near, very near indeed and He takes as much delight in a smile on the face of a child that he did in the creation of the universe. 

God, our God is a personal, loving, caring, and just God. 

In this talk, we study a set of laws pertaining to the loss of property and economic goods, laws pertaining to moral conduct, as well as laws regarding the religious calendar. Our goal is not so much the laws themselves as it is the Giver of these laws. By understanding God's motive in giving these laws, we will be in a better position to understand what he expects of us today. After all, justice demands that if God required the Israelites under Moses to live according to His Law, then we, who are called to live under the grace of Jesus Christ would be required to live this law most perfectly. After all, to whom much is given, much is required.

When Israel ratified its covenant with the Lord, humanity should have had a great victory. Through the ratification of the covenant with Israel, humanity found its missing link back to God. God had been walking with us ever since he visited Adam and Eve in the garden. After the fall, we turned our back on him and ran away... to him. God, ever patient, ever-loving, walked in our shadow, never leaving our side but we chose to believe in our shadow and forget him. In this event, hidden away in the wilderness, witnessed by no one outside Israel, God showed himself to his children and renewed the covenant of Noah, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with them. He invited their elders to his table and blessed them. What does this event mean to us today? What does it tell us about God's ways, his faithfulness, his love, and his desire to see us sit at his table? God is love, yes. But his love is a covenantal love. With no understanding of the covenant, we lose our way back to him.

The tabernacle of the Lord is a portable mountain. It is the mountain of the Lord in the midst of his people. The ratification of the covenant by Israel was a celebration. Israel, all of Israel, ratified the covenant and their elders were invited to go up the mountain to the table of the Lord where a meal was prepared for them. Then Moses, alone, went up the mountain to receive the tablets of the Law. The people remained at the foot of the mountain, the elders were allowed entry to the mid-section of the mountain, and Moses was welcomed in the inner sanctum, the top of the mountain. The mountain is a tabernacle and the tabernacle is a portable mountain. This makes sense if we keep in mind that, to man, the mountain was God's abode, the place where God dwelt. The Lord then accommodated this belief and took his mountain with him wherever the Israelites went. He wanted to be in the midst of his people and to do so, he instructed Moses to build a moving mountain, a divine tabernacle according to a heavenly pattern. This study will delve into these details and show how God, in His love and mercy, wanted and still wants to live in the midst of his people.

The Ten Commandments and the Tabernacle are two aspects of the same reality. We cannot live the Ten Commandments without the Tabernacle.

"Amen, amen, I say to you: unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you have no life in you," So said Our Lord in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of Saint John. He, who is the fulfillment of the law and the reality the tabernacle foreshadowed, joins both in His Person and gives us his body to eat and his flesh to drink, so that we may be able to keep the law and live by his life.

This is the penultimate meaning of the law and the tabernacle. Together, they point and reflect the glory of the Son of Man. The Law alone is of no use to us for we cannot keep it. The tabernacle alone is not enough, for we need the moral compass of the Law. Put together, joined as they were joined by the Lord, they form a diptych pointing to Jesus. Understanding them helps us to obey the Lord.

What is the hidden meaning of the High Priest's clothing? What must he wear and why? A better understanding of the High Priest's clothing will help us understand the clothing of the Catholic Priesthood.

Concerning the High Priest's vestments, Ben Sira (ca. 190 BC.) wrote "How glorious was he when he looked forth from the Tent and emerged from behind the Temple veil! He was like the morning star appearing between the clouds, Like the full moon on a festival day"

So what do these various elements of the priestly vestment mean?

If God set forth the ten commandments he wished written in the hearts of all men when he instructed Moses to build the Tabernacle, then it follows that the Tabernacle is essential for men to live by the law.

The tabernacle, with its sacrificial system, its high priest and the twelve tribes of Israel around it is a symbol of a greater reality: The tabernacle of the Catholic Church, the Pope, and the nations receiving the light of Christ from her.

The tabernacle is then the symbol of the body of Christ and this lecture will focus on the meaning of the tabernacle in the light of Christ. We shall describe how much of the specific physical details concerning the various objects found inside the tent, the priestly vestments, and the sacrifices therein point to and prepare Israel to recognize the surpassing reality of Christ's incarnation, death, and resurrection.

Tabernacle picture by Didier Descouens - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

If the twelve tribes of Israel were one human being who happens to be you, then what would the Book of Exodus be telling you?

In this final study of the Book of Exodus, we take a step back and consider the entire book in its moral, or tropological setting: Is God active in your life? If so how much? Is he active now and then, watching us from afar, waiting for us to come to him, waiting for our prayers?

Did you ever stop to think about how we get purified, how we get cleansed and healed? The sun shines every day, the wind blows your beating heartbeats without your attention. Is God present between the beats of your heart? Does he care? if so how much?

In the final analysis, we are saved, not because we care about God, but because God cares about us, and his care for us precedes us. God cares since before the foundation of the world. 

How much?