The Need for a Savior This chapter discusses: 1- The origin of the nation of Israel in Egypt 1:1-7 2- Their submission to servitude 1:8-14 3- The killing of males 1:15-22 The story of servitude This book narrates the story of servitude in detail for the following reasons: Firstly, because it represents the story of our servitude to sin of which the Lord Christ came to set us free; secondly, because these details represent living aspects of our life and relationship with God; thirdly, because we often forget or pretend to forget that bitter servitude. That is why when the Lord Christ revealed His mission to the Jews, He said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8.32). They answered, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can you say, ‘You shall be made free’” (John 8.33)? St. Augustine comments on that response by saying: For even as regards freedom in this life, how was that the truth when you said, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone”? Was not Joseph sold (Gen. 37.28)? Were not the holy prophets led into captivity (2 Kings 24; Ezek. 1.1)? And again, did not that very nation, when making bricks in Egypt, also serve hard rulers, not only in gold and silver, but also in clay? If you were never in bondage to any man, ungrateful people, why is it that God is continually reminding you that He delivered you from the house of bondage1? It was ridiculous to say that they were never in captivity when they were under the rule of the Romans. That is the nature of man: to submit humbly to servitude thinking that he is free. That is why the servitude of those people and their liberation were recorded in order for us to always remember our need for the Lord Christ as the Deliverer of our souls from the captivity of sin. 1- The Origin of the Nation of Israel in Egypt Jacob with his children and grandchildren entered into Egypt as one family and there the nation of Israel had its origin and its first leadership (the prophet Moses). It flourished after the death of Joseph (Gen. 1.7), and then fell under the oppression of Pharaoh and the servitude by the Egyptians. However, God sent Moses and called on him to fight against Pharaoh in order to deliver the people through the sacrifice of the Passover. Jacob went down to Egypt, together with his seed, the twelve fathers. There, they sojourned according to the words of the prophet Isaiah, “My people went down at first into Egypt to sojourn there; then the Assyrians oppressed them without cause” (Isa. 52.4). They sojourned and fell under humiliation and servitude. Nevertheless, we find their names in the book of Revelation, written on the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem (Rev. 21.12), and those having their foreheads marked from each tribe were numbered, as children of God, enjoy the heavenly glories. Therefore, let Assyria oppress without cause but God is protecting His children, counting them and engraving their names in the Book of Life. 1 On the Gospel of St. John. Tractate 41:2. 17 The scholar Origen comments on the words of the Book, “All those who were descendants of Jacob were seventy persons (souls in some versions)” (Exod. 1.5) 1, that Man does not give birth to a ‘soul’; a ‘soul’ is not produced out of one’s seed. At the beginning of creation, Adam says of Eve, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Gen. 2.23). He does not say, “This is a soul of my soul!” Likewise, Laban also says to Jacob, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh” (Gen. 29.14); he did not dare to speak of soul kinship but of that of the body - of the bone and flesh. Conversely, here, the Book intended to disclose a new sort of kinship above that of the body, a spiritual kinship. The soul does not beget unless it reaches the level of the leader who says, “For though you might have ten thousands instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel” (1 Cor. 4.15). Those are men who beget souls to live in the world with the spirit of the gospel carrying in them the features of the Lord Christ. Therefore, he also says, “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you” (Gal. 4.19). This is the attribute of the new Israel, namely, the Church. She is a fertile mother giving birth to holy souls carrying the features of the Lord Christ. As for the secret behind growth, it lies in the following phrase, “Joseph died, all his brothers, and all that generation, but the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them” (Exod. 1.6-7). This phrase links between the death of Joseph and the fruitfulness of the children of Israel and their abundant increase to fill the land. If Joseph carried a symbol of the Lord Christ in many aspects, there would be no growth for the Church, the new Israel, except through the death of the Lord Christ on the cross. The children of Israel also symbolize the virtues that dwell in the heart. There is neither growth of the virtuous life, nor an increase of the virtues in the heart, except by the declaration of the power of the crucifixion and death of Christ in it. The scholar Origen comments on this text that before the death of Joseph, who was sold by Judah, one of his brothers, for thirty pieces of silver, there was a small number of the children of Israel. However, having tasted death for the sake of all, that “through His death, he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2.14), the believers increased abundantly. The Church would not have become so fruitful and would not have come with such a harvest of believers in the whole land, “unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies” (John 12.24). It fell into the ground and died and through it, all this harvest of believers was produced. The voice of the apostles “has gone through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world” (Ps. 19.4). As it is written: “And the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly” (Acts 6.7). This is the spiritual interpretation. However, for the edification of the listeners, let us also consider the didactic aspect: if Joseph dies in you; if you carry in your body “the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4.10) and if your members die to sin, the children of Israel, namely, the exalted spiritual commitments, would increase abundantly within you. Through the mortification of the bodily lusts, the commitments of the spirit grow. By the daily mortification to your sins, your virtues would increase and the earth, namely the body, would be filled with good deeds. 1 Origen in Exodus. Hom. 1:3. 18 Would you like me to prove this from the Holy Bible? Through whom did the earth bare fruits1? Consider St. Paul’s words, “If I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. For I am hard-pressed between the two, having desired to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you” (Phil. 1.22-24). Now, do you realize how the earth became fruitful through him? As long as he is still on earth -in the flesh- he carries the fruits of establishing Churches and gains people for God through preaching the gospel2. 2- The submission of the Israelites to servitude The natural result of that increasing growth -the salvation by the crucifixion and death of Christ- is the agitation and frustration of the enemy of good. The Bible says, “Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, ‘Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; Come let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land’. Therefore, they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens” (Exod. 1.8-11). Who is this new king but the devil that becomes terrified when he sees the Lord reigning over the hearts of His children? He exerts all his energies to dedicate his hosts and evil capabilities to enslave men and to humiliate them by laboring in the mud, namely, through making them preoccupied with earthly labor. The scholar Origen sees the devil in a state of terror because of our affiliation to the Crucified, who deprived him of all authority and defamed him (Col. 2.5), as he says that this line of thought terrifies him; thus, he says, “lest they fight against us, and so go up out of the land” (Exod. 1.10). He does not want us to go up out of the land but to remain “bearing the image of the man of dust” (1 Cor. 15.49). Therefore, if we happen to cross over to his enemy, He would bring us to the Kingdom of heaven and compel us to abandon the image of the man of dust and adopt that of the heavenly3. If he sets enslaving taskmasters to oppress us, by compelling us to work in the mud, the Lord Christ has prepared for us other kinds of taskmasters to teach us to abandon the mud, namely, to cast off the works of the old man and to live according to the new man: the image of our True King. Building Pithom and Rameses “And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Rameses” (Exod. 1.11). As the scholar Origen believes that the name “Rameses” means land of corruption4, the devil wishes to humiliate us by making us labor in mud for the account of corruption and evil. Here, we may wonder, ‘Why would God allow His children to be afflicted?’ A- In order to let them yearn for a better life. If the people were to remain in a state of leisure, they would not be in need for setting forth to Canaan. That is why God allows afflictions and troubles to prepare us for a better life to enjoy the heavenly Canaan. St. John Chrysostom says that God is good and loving, not only when He 1 St. Paul. 2 Origen in Exode. Hom. 1:4. 3 Ibid. 1:5. 4 Ibid. 1:5. 19 grants us gifts, but also when He chastises us. His chastisements and punishments are out of His generosity and a great expression of His help for us1. B- That they become close to God. Affliction leads us to feel our need for God’s work within us and through us. C- If God seems to have forsaken His people to humiliation, the Book confirms: “The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew” (Exod. 1.12). D- Even when the hand of servitude became severe, God did not forsake His people and labored to save them in all ways. 3- Killing the males The king of Egypt called the two Hebrew midwives ‘Shiphrah’ and ‘Puah’ and commanded them to kill every male child at his birth and to leave every female to live. That task was not difficult to do, as it was the custom in Egypt at that time to conduct childbirth on a birth stool; therefore, the midwives were able to kill the male child before being seen by anyone. Nevertheless, the two midwives feared God and saved both the male and female children. The Hebrews The Hebrew people were called “Hebrews” after “Eber”, one of the grandfathers of Abraham (Gen. 10.21). The word “Hebrew” was therefore, used to refer to the genuine Jew, to designate him from the Jew who intrudes from the Gentiles2. The believers, likewise, may be called “Hebrews”, as the nature of their life is a continuous ‘crossover’ feeling that he/she is a sojourner setting forth all the time from the earthly to the heavenly. The Hebrew Midwives St. Gregory Bishop of Nyssa believes that the midwife, who helps the Hebrew women during their labor, refers to the free will that brings forward the virtue in the life of the believers, amid the bitter pains of labor3. The believer, even while acting through God, would not have fruits outside His divine will, as Pharaoh, who refers to our enemy the devil, cannot bear to see ‘our free will’ granted to us by God working for our growth through Jesus Christ. On the other hand, the scholar Origen4 sees in the two midwives the “knowledge” that sustains the children of God in the birth of both the males and females. Then, they will have fruits in the divine rational meditation and in the sanctification of emotions. The males refer to the mind while the females to the emotions. The two midwives also refer to the Holy Book, both the Old and the New Testaments, through which the children of God enjoy the multiplied fruits rationally and emotionally, or spiritually and physically. The names of the two midwives: ‘Shiphrah’ and ‘Puah’. They are two Hebrew words that mean ‘beauty’ and ‘girl’. The scholar Origen believes that the word ‘Shiphrah’ means a ‘sparrow’ or ‘bird’ and ‘Puah’ means ‘chaste’ or ‘shyness’. As though the two midwives act in the Church to let her produce fruits: firstly, through lifting up the heart to fly in the sky as a flying sparrow; and secondly, by the spirit of shyness and chastity. 1 Fr. Tadros Y. Malaty. St. John Chrysostom: Does the Devil Have Authority over you? 1972. 27. 2 It seems that the Egyptians used to use the word ‘aperu’ for distinguishing every person from the Middle-East who comes to Egypt as a captive. 3 St. Gregory of Nyssa. The Life of Moses. 2:5 4 In Exode. Hom. 2:1-2 20 If the two midwives refer to the two Testaments of the Holy Book, we should accept the Old Testament as a sparrow. We should comprehend it in a spiritual way not literally. As to the New Testament, it represents the ‘shyness’ (reddening of face), a sign of spattering with the blood of the Lord Christ, through which we have the fruitful knowledge in the world1. Killing the Males and Leaving the Females Live We said that the male refers to the mind or spirit; while the female refers to the body or emotions2. Pharaoh’s intention was to kill the spiritual comprehension of the Holy Bible so that we may care only for the material side in order for our evangelic comprehension to be dry and dead. While the war of Satan against the children of God is aimed to make them lose the prudent way of thinking and to agitate in them the bodily lusts, the honest evangelic knowledge binds the two sides together: the intellectual with the emotional. It aims at the sanctification of both the Spirit and the body I.E. to keep both the males and the females alive. God’s Reward for the Midwives The Holy Bible says, “Because the midwives feared God, He provided households for them” (Exod. 1.21). Does God provide households? If the two midwives refer to the Holy Book, when it is studied with the fear of God and lived by the believers, God will provide for the Book a place in many locations; that is to say, He will open up the range of ministry and establish households for Himself. Thus, the world needs to see in us the word of God working in our hearts with His Divine fear to provide for the gospel a place in every heart. This text caused some controversy. Why would God reward the two midwives who lied to Pharaoh? Is it permissible to lie, as ‘Rahab’ the harlot also did (Josh. 2)? St. Augustine wrote two essays on this issue in which he made it clear that it is not permissible to lie not even if it involves some benefit for others; for, “The mouth that lies slays the soul” (Wis. 1.11). As the Lord Christ Himself commanded us “Let your ‘Yes’ be “Yes’, and your ‘No’, ‘No’; for whatever is more than these is from the evil one” (Matt. 5.37). Furthermore, the apostle Paul likewise warns us saying, “Therefore, put away lying, ‘Let each of you one speak truth with his neighbor’” (Eph. 4.25). The Saint explained God’s rewarding of the two midwives, by saying that He dealt with them according to their spiritual level and their ability to act. On the other hand, he says that God rewarded them not because they lied but because they had mercy upon the people of God. He did not reward them for deceiving Pharaoh but for their acts of kindness and for having a compassionate heart3.13 Casting the Baby-Sons into the River The Bible says, “Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, ‘Every son who is born, you shall cast into the river; and every daughter, you shall save alive” (Exod. 1.22). The scholar Origen wonders about what the prince of this world commands his servants to do. He commands that our children be stolen and cast into the river. He wants to snatch them into his nets since their birth. He commands to attack them once they touch the breasts of the Church to take them away from her and to chase them 1 Methodious. Banquet of the Ten Virgins. 4:2 2 Methodious. Banquet of the Ten Virgins. 4:2 3 To Consentus. Against Lying. 32 21 until they are devoured by the raging waves of this world. Behold the danger that threatens you since your birth or rather since your second birth, your baptism. “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matt. 4.1). That was the command of Pharaoh to his people concerning the Hebrew children, to attack and snatch them once they are born and then to cast them into the river. Notwithstanding, Christ conquered the devil to open the way of victory before you. He conquered while fasting to let you realize that “this kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting” (Mark 9.29) 1. 1 In Exodus. Hom. 2: 3
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