THE DIVINE COVENANT AND THE ROLE OF THE CONGREGATION In the previous chapters, we see the incessant movement of God toward His people: He gave them Moses to rescue them; He moved Pharaoh’s heart; He made them cross the Red Sea and put an end to their enemies (the devil and his hosts); He sustained them with the heavenly manna and turned the bitterness of water into sweetness, etc. Now the congregation (the Church) is committed to move toward God through His own support. Thus, this chapter came to reveal how the Church functions in God; that could be summarized in the following points: 1- The collective Spirit Although “Moses alone shall come near the Lord” (Exod. 24.2), without the people, yet God instructed Moses to “come up to the Lord, he and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel” (Exod. 24.1). The Church knows no individualism, but the spiritual leadership with all its various capabilities and capacities should come together in one Spirit. Moses, who received the Law, should join Aaron, the High Priest and his two sons, Nadab and Abihu, as representatives of priests and Levites and with them seventy of the elders of the people. The apostle says, “For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function; so we, being many, are one body to Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness” (Rom. 12.4-8). All should work together with one Spirit, even with the different gifts. No one should boast of his gift over the others, or underestimate the talents that God gave him. Let him work, not with the Spirit of haughtiness or with lowliness of soul. St. John Chrysostom says that we take all these things into consideration: not to envy or harbor grudge toward those with greater gifts; and at the same time, not to despise those with lesser ones1. 2- A spiritual and not a carnal bond Moses did not take with him one of his sons and we did not hear that he gave them a certain responsibility that they could not bear. However, when God ordered him to have his brother Aaron work with him, he did not refuse (Exod. 4.14). And he took with him Aaron and his two sons, Nadab and Abihu (Exod. 24:1). Here, the living spiritual leadership that works only for God’s sake is demonstrated. Nadab is Aaron’s firstborn, and his name means generous, and Abihu means a father. Unfortunately, both of them perished, when they offered profane fire before the Lord (Num. 26.61), probably because they were drunk. Anyway, these two became horrible examples to the priests of the Lord; for, although they accompanied Moses and Aaron, together with 70 of the elders and saw the God of Israel, with 1 Fr. Tadros Y. Malaty. The Pastoral Love. 1965. 177 heavenly glories under his feet (Exod. 24.9), and although they took part in the priestly work from the beginning they deprived themselves of enjoying God, through offering profane fire. That is why the apostle warns us saying, “Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he falls” (1 Cor. 10.12); and he also says, “But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified” (1 Cor. 9.27). 3- The role of the people If Moses, being the leader of the people, Aaron, their High Priest, and his sons, together with seventy of their elders, went up, yet the life of the Church would never be set upon passive people. Thus, before Moses offers the burnt offerings and sacrifices to the Lord, and before he sprinkled the blood over the altar and the people, “he told them all the words and judgments of the Lord” (Exod. 24.3), which they readily accepted. For the sake of the people, Moses came, and for their sake the priesthood was set. Therefore, they should have the first word in their relationship with God. In the Church, the congregation has a positive role. There is no secret liturgy, but the congregation openly partakes of the service with the priest. And just as the priest prays on behalf of the congregation, the deacon asks them to pray for the Patriarch and all the clergy, and the congregation are committed to testify and preach the gospel, being the message of Christ, read by all the people1. 4- The role of the young men “Then he sent young men of the children of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord” (Exod. 24.5). The role of the young men is not just to listen and obey, but they carry on an essential role in the life of the Church. God requests from you, in the days of your youth, offerings of love and peace saying, “Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth” (Ecc. 12.1). 5- The Spirit of discipleship “So Moses arose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up to the mountain of God” (Exod. 24.13). St. Ambrose saw in Joshua’s attachment to Moses a living symbol of discipleship. A successful leader presents to the Church disciples for the Lord. After his departure, his success is assessed by the disciples he left behind to complete his ministry, or else, his work ends at his departure. St. Ambrose says about Joshua, “Everywhere, therefore, he alone kept close to holy Moses amid all these wondrous works and dread secrets. … Beautiful, therefore, is the union between old and young. The one to give witness (the Law), the other to give comfort (the land of promise); the one to give guidance, the other to give pleasure. … One ruled the sea, the other heaven (Josh. 10.12).” 2 6- Working by the Spirit of prayers with wisdom Aaron was attached to Hur;3 they worked together as they were supporting Moses’ hands during the battle between Israel and Amalek (Exod. 17.12); and then, they worked together on judging the people’s disputes during the absence of Moses. 1 I shall publish a book, God willing, about the role of the laymen in the church. 2 St. Ambrose. Duties of the Clergy. 2:20. 3 Josiphus believes that Hur is Moses’ and Aaron’s brother-in-law (their sister’s husband). 178 Aaron represented priesthood; while Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and a grandfather of Bezaleel, about whom Moses said, “See, the Lord has called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judas ... and has filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom and understanding, in knowledge and all manner of workmanship” (Exod. 35.30-31), represented the divine wisdom. If Moses by stretching his hands represented the cross, that cross was set on the priestly work of Christ, and on the wisdom of God for our salvation. Here also, in his absence, Moses assigned Aaron and Hur to judge the people’s affairs. The Church, in its care for the people, needs priestly work mixed with both, compassion and wisdom of organization. 7- Sanctification with blood The Church work could not be offered, except through the altar and sacrifice, that is why “Moses rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel” (Exod. 24.4). These tribes could not exist except through the altar, and could not be sanctified except by sprinkling half the blood on the altar, and the other half on the people. Through the blood of the true sacrifice, that of the Lord Christ, the people would enter into the Holy of Holies; as the apostle Paul says, “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is His flesh; and having a High Priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb. 10.19-21). 8- Connecting heavenly life to contemporary actuality “They saw the God of Israel, and there was under His feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and it was like the very heavens in its clarity” (Exod. 24.10). It is as though God wants all ministers of God, working in the Church, to carry His heavenly nature and His heavenly thoughts, yet without disregarding their physical existence, and the needs of their bodies. As the Scripture says, “They saw God and they ate and drank” (Exod. 24.11). Likewise, we, as servants to God, have to see Him, be likened to Him and bare His thoughts within us, without ignoring our essential physical needs of food and drink, in God’s presence. 9- Moses spending forty days on the mountain We talked previously about the clouds and the appearance of God as fire. Now, let us behold Moses on the mountain “forty days and forty nights” (Exod. 24.18). St. Augustine believes that the figure 40 refers to the fullness of our life on earth; as though it is fitting for the believer to spend all his life on the mountain of God I.E. according to God’s law and his commandments, contemplating in God’s glory and enjoying His encounter face to face. As Moses fasted forty days and forty nights, the true believer should live all his days of sojourn in some sort of abstinence, not for its own sake, but in order to lift up his heart to a life of fellowship with God and continuous contemplation in Him. In other words, we say with the scholar Tertullian, “For forty days Moses and Elias fasted, and lived upon God alone.”1 He thus became their satisfying food. 1 Tertullian. On the Resurrection of the Flesh.
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