Codex Singularity: Search for the Prisca Sapientia
Egypt and exodus
1. EGYPT AND EXODUS
(Part 1)
God frees his people “with great power,
a strong hand and an outstretched arm”.
2. Introduction
O Period : Egypt and Exodus
O Narrative book : Exodus 1- 18 (Part 1)
O Supplemental book : Leviticus
O Key story : 400 years of slavery
3. Heart of the story
O Repetition of the history : Israel is going to lose their story.
O Judges and Kings: People who suppose to teach the story didn’t
teach their children well.
O The Israelites becoming more like Egyptians where they involved
with their culture and their gods. (Egyptians worship many gods)
O God’s mission :
a. To free His people out of bondage physically and;
b. To brings Egypt out of their heart
But , this is not easy.
Detox period
Todays, a lot of people fall into addictions. As what happened to
Israelites in Exodus, it takes a lot of struggles to unbound themselves
from the bad habits.
4. Israelites fall into slavery
O Joseph, Jacob and families stay in Egypt. They prospered
in Egypt and build a large nation that they become a threat
to Egypt in numbers and powers.
O The new leadership in Egypt—feeling threatened by the
large Jacob’s descendants feels threatened.
O He embarks on a campaign to subdue the Israelites:
o forcing them into slavery and
o eventually commanding that all Hebrew boys must be killed at
birth in the Nile River.
O The Hebrew women resist the decree, and one woman opts
to save her newborn son by setting him afloat on the river in
a basket.
O Fortunately, Pharaoh’s daughter discovers the abandoned
child and raises him after he has been nursed, naming him
Moses (drawn out of water).
5. Moses’s Life
O Three sections:
a. Beginning of his life, he losts his story as a Hebrew. He lived a
prince’s life. (40 years with Pharaoh)
(Nowadays, many Christians lost their story. They are Christians, but
they:
do not know God
do not know His salvation history
do not have relationship with God.
b. After he killed one of the Egyptian (Exodus 2:12), he went to live in
Midian. He is forced to go to exile for 40 years.
c. He as a leader; leads the people to freedom towards the Promised
land for 40 years.
God send me before you to prepare for you. Whatever you made
for evil, God will make it for good.
Moses who’s been out into the wilderness will lead Israel out of the
wilderness.
6. God revealed Himself to Moses
O The first revelation is visual: a fire that burns yet does not consume. (God is
holiness itself and must be approached with fear and deep respect). –
relationship to a contemplative prayer.
CCC 2711 entering into contemplative prayer is like entering into the Eucharistic
liturgy: we "gather up:" the heart, recollect our whole being under the prompting
of the Holy Spirit, abide in the dwelling place of the Lord which we are, awaken
our faith in order to enter into the presence of him who awaits us. We let our
masks fall and turn our hearts back to the Lord who loves us, so as to hand
ourselves over to him as an offering to be purified and transformed.
O Their early conversations reveals more:
He is personal (the God of your father)
He is faithful (the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob –
the God of promises)
He is ready to intervene on their behalf (Exodus 3:7-9)
He works not alone but through people to accomplish His will (Come, I will
send you.)
He desires the worship of His people
O In His name, God reveals His character : I AM = YAHWEH. I WILL BE THAT I
WILL BE. I AM all-sufficient and all-powerful. I AM being itself. I AM all that you
are not, Moses. I WILL BE WITH YOU.
7. Redemption from Egypt
O After many years of slavery, the people of Israel cry to the
God of Araham, Isaac and Jacob for deliverance.
O God prepares Moses for this purpose and commisions him
at the burning bush to stand before Pharaoh as the
advocate of Israel.
O Exodus 3: 10 – Go now! I am sending you to Pharaoh to
bring my people, the sons of Israel out of Egypt.
O Exodus 3:13 – God replied,”I will be with you and this will
be the sign that I have sent you. When you have brought
the people out of Egypt, you will worship God in this
mountain.”
O With the miraculous powers (staff became a serpent and
the leprosy) and with Aaron to accompany him, Moses
returns to Egypt.
O However, Pharaoh hardens his heart with an atitude
expressed in words in Exodus 5: 2 Who is the Lord, that I
should obey His voice to let Israel go?
8. THE TEN PLAGUES
O God soon reveals Himself
to Pharaoh through a
series of objects lessons
we call the ten plagues.
O Each plague from God was
a judgment upon the gods
of Egypt.
O The plagues grow in
severity until the tenth
plague brings death to the
firstborn of every Egyptian
household.
O Israel is redeemed through
the plague by means of the
Passover lamb.
9. Correlation between the
Passover Lamb and Jesus
O Jesus is the lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the
world – John the Baptist.
O Jesus introduced his disciples to this correlation on the first
day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, on the day it was
customary to sacrifice the Passover Lamb.
O At the Passover table in Matthew’s gospel, instead of lamb;
Jesus has his disciples share his ‘body’ and the ‘blood of the
covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of
sins.
O Peter tells us that Christ is “a lamb without blemish or defect”
– qualifications of Passover Lamb.
O Paul comes right out and says that, “Christ, our paschal
lamb, has been sacrificed,” and then goes on encourage the
Corinthians to keep the feast with the “unleavened bread of
sincerity and truth” – deliberate references to the Passover.
10. Journey to Sinai
O God sends His people bread for heaven (manna)
every day.
O God tells the people to gather just enough food for
each day and no more, and to gather a double
portion on the sixth day for the Sabbath.
O These are like first steps for ‘infants’. God’s children
are learning to walk.
O They must learn that God’s a faithful provider and
must trust God to provide them each day without
worrying about the next.
O At the close of each week, they must actively
prepare to set aside the Sabbath for rest and
worship – a rule which shows them that the
Sabbath is a gift God wants them to take seriously.
12. Discussion
O Do you know God by name? Meditate on
Yahweh and what it means. Jesus also is I
AM. In John 8:58 he says, “before
Abraham was born, I am!”. At other times
he says I am the good shepherd; the
bread of life; the light of the world; the
way, the truth and the life. He IS all of
these things. He IS all that we are not.
What difference does that make to you?