Covenants
Out of Water
a meditation on Exodus through Judges
“if you believed moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” - Jesus of Nazareth
As should be no surprise at this stage, the whole story of the Exodus of the sons of Israel is about Jesus. God foretold, in the story of the nation of Israel, the story of his beloved son, the story of love and salvation and a son who is savior. And he did so in even greater detail than was possible in the earlier stories of Genesis.
The Exodus story is an allegory of Christ. We shall look at over 12 episodes in the story of God’s people from Exodus through Judges, and we will see how deep a Christology is found in the early historical books of the Old Testament.
And know, dear reader, this isn’t an exhaustive list of the allegories found about Christ in the writings of Moses and the early prophets, but simply a small sampling to understand and glimpse at how thoroughly Saint Augustine’s saying applies to the Old Covenants,
the New reveals the Old; the Old conceals the New.
For Christ came to fulfill the Law, not abolish it. A greater Covenant is now here, and that Covenant is the one foretold in the earlier ones and now fulfilled in the New and offered to us to live under today. Today, we are called to live as sons and daughters of Our Father, as the holy bride of his beloved Son, and as dwelling places for the Holy Spirit.
So, let us now turn to the Exodus stories so that we might see Jesus even more clearly.
I Am Who I Am
“Say this to the sons of ISRAEL, ‘I Am has sent me to you.’”
- God Speaking to the Prophet Moses
The sons of Israel once again find themselves in need of a savior. This time, not from famine but slavery. The chosen people, the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, find themselves far away from the promises of God. They are exiled from their promised land without dominion or authority. In fact, they are under the rule of a foreign power, the king of Egypt, Pharaoh. And not a Pharaoh like Joseph served under, for Moses tells us,
Now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph.
What that means is this new Pharaoh didn’t know of the salvation brought by Israel’s beloved son, and so the sons of Israel found themselves slaves in Egypt.
Worse even, they were under tyrannical and murderous decree. In contrast to God who says “be fruitful and multiply,” they found themselves under a power and king who commanded the midwives and doctors,
“If it is a son, you shall kill him.”
The devil knew of a promised son, he had heard the pronouncement in Eden, and worked through the powers of this world to command the killing of all the Hebrew sons. Miraculously, the midwives feared God and disobeyed Pharaoh and a savior to the sons of Israel was born even in times of tyranny.
We will skip over the obvious parallels to Jesus who was born under a similar decree when King Herod had all the innocent children of Bethlehem slaughtered in order to try and kill our savior.
Miraculously, a Levite man fathered a son who they hid from Pharaoh. He was a goodly child but they could hide him no further, and they sent him in a basket down the river.
Miraculously, the Pharaoh’s daughter found him floating down the river and adopted him and called him Moses, for his name means “drawn out of water.”
We will skip over the obvious parallels to Noah, who survived on an ark floating on water. In some sense, all children are drawn out of water. For before we enter the world, our mother’s water breaks and the child comes into this world. And though Moses is under a decree of death, he finds salvation when he is drawn from water and brought into the king’s household. A foreshadowing of the destiny of the sons of Israel and the eternal importance of the waters of baptism.
At this point, many would think salvation would come in Moses gaining power and influence with Pharaoh, possibly even becoming kinglike under Pharaoh as a type of Joseph. But no, Moses commits murder and flees Egypt in fear of punishment from Pharaoh. He would spend 40 years in exile in the wilderness, another foreshadowing of the life he would live as leader of the nation of Israel. The hope of the sons of Israel seemed lost.
Miraculously, God had a greater plan.
While in exile, Moses stood up and helped some women at Midian, daughters to the priest, Jethro. He marries one of the priest’s daughters, has a son, and cares for Jethro’s flock. Moses has a transformation to undergo to know God. For when the daughters speak of Moses to their father, they describe him not as a Hebrew, but as an Egyptian. Though Hebrew by blood, he was Egyptian by culture and appearances.
One day, while keeping the flock on the mountain of God, God reveals himself to Moses in a miracle of nature - a burning bush that won’t burn up. A mystery, the consuming fire of God doesn’t consume. And as Moses investigates, God reveals himself to Moses and that includes his divine name, I Am Who I Am.
God’s revelation is to transform Moses into a man with a divine mission. Moses knew the mission in his soul, but he didn’t know God nor his ways. How could he, being adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter as a baby? So, his first attempt to free a singular Hebrew slave from oppression was via power and human might and murder, killing an Egyptian to help a Hebrew. But that’s not God’s way. Moses needed revelation to understand revolution.
God desires freedom for his children. And after centuries of suffering, after enduring the evil decree of murdering the Hebrew male children, God is going to send Moses as a prophet to warn the people, Hebrew and Egyptian alike, of the divine mission of freedom. So, first, Moses is to tell his brethren,
“The Lord the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has sent me to you”
And Moses is to lead them out of Egypt and to the promised land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Next, Moses is to go to Pharaoh, and Moses is to give God’s news to him,
“Thus says the Lord, Israel is my first-born son, and i say to you, ‘let my son go that he may serve me. if you refuse to let him go, behold, i will slay your first-born son.’”
And the message is clear, the son can no longer be a slave. The time of custody and guardianship is over. And if Pharaoh does not repent of his evil, Pharaoh and all of Egypt will experience God’s judgement as a small measure of the pain they inflicted on God’s children. The Pharaoh who killed so many of God’s sons will experience the death of his own firstborn; of course, if he doesn’t repent.
So, yes, at a surface level the story of Exodus is a political tale, about tyranny and liberty; it is a tale about ending slavery and overcoming tyrants, but the deeper message is a family story. At a deeper and more profound level, the Exodus story is one not only of freeing slaves but of establishing sons.
True freedom comes in relationship with God, a family relationship; and true liberty is found in covenant with our loving Father, whose name is the essence of being and existence - I Am Who I Am. We find our existence and purpose in relationship to God, a family relationship.
Moses is sent as savior to proclaim the sonship of Israel. And Jesus is sent as more than savior, but also as beloved Son, to proclaim the sonship of humanity. The story of Moses finds a greater fulfillment in Jesus, God’s only-begotten Son. Jesus, who also reveals the divine name “I Am” in various times during his ministry, to the shock of those around him, has come to free slaves and save his family. The story of Moses is a hidden story of Jesus who reveals we are all God’s children and he has come to turn slaves and enemies into God’s sons and daughters. Israel may have been first-born, but they are not God’s only children, simply his eldest born.
So, when Jesus reveals the divine name, he is not just clarifying his place as the divine Son. He came to teach us ours. The beloved Son of God has come to proclaim our freedom as sons of God. Jesus has come to offer brotherhood to humanity, Jesus has come to let us know God heals and frees slaves and transforms us into family. Jesus leads mankind to freedom as sons of the Father, for he says among many similar sentiments,
“You will know the truth and the truth shall set you free… i am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.”
Saint Paul understands the implication and importance of sonship. He tells the Church,
The law was our custodian until Christ came, that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian; for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female.; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs ACCORDING to the promise.
So, the sons of Israel may have been under Pharaoh’s care, but he was a tyrant and the time of tyranny had come to an end, God hears the cries of his children. The sons of Israel are the first-born sons of God and they are about to be set free to inherit the promises of Abraham. In order to be free, they will need to have faith to hear and heed the call of God’s messenger and savior. And freedom will come at a cost.
Blood of the Lamb
“Behold, the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” - Saint John the Baptist
When Moses experiences the theophany on the mountain, receiving his commission for the divine mission, the three miracles occur as private preludes of the public miracles of God to come before Pharaoh and all of Egypt. As Moses is told of the divine name, he witnesses the burning bush that won’t burn up, the staff that turns into a serpent and back to a staff again, and the hand which becomes diseased and then cured in moments. The three miracles point to greater truths revealed in the New Covenant, but they set the stage for the greatest miracle, the miracle of the Passover Lamb.
The …
Eucharist and communion
Out of Egypt
“When Israel was a child, i loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son” - The Prophet Hosea
Incarnation and baptism and marriage (Hosea 2)
Wood and Water
“On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem; it shall continue in summer and in wInter” - the prophet Zechariah
Crucifixion
Bread of Life
“I am the Living Bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live forever” - Jesus, king of Kings
Heavenly bread
Water from Rock
“And the rock was Christ” - Saint Paul
Pentecost
Blood of the Covenant
“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when i will make a new covenant with the house of israel” - The Prophet Jeremiah
Ark of the Covenant
“Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, loud noises, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail. And a great signed appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child…” - Saint John, the Revelator
A vessel for God's presence
God Dwelt Among Us
“Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel, which means God with Us” - The Gospel of Saint Matthew
Incarnation and marriage
Priests and Sacrifices
“For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the Nations” - the prophet Malachi
“On the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him…For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings” - The Prophet Hosea
Bronze Serpent
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life, for God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” - Jesus, Son of God
Wilderness
Promised Land
“Blessed are the meek for they shall INHERIT the earth” - Jesus, King of the Universe
Joshua
Judges
“In those days there was no king in israel; everyone did what was right in their own eyes.” - Book of Judges
Judges