April 2008 Lectio Divina

Exodus 19:16-19

The Exodus was the founding event of the nation of Israel, and the story of the Exodus resounds again and again in the psalms. To understand the psalms one must read the book of Exodus. Exodus tells how the Hebrews were in slavery in Egypt, and God ‘remembered his covenant with Abraham’ (Exodus 2:24) and sent Moses to lead them out of bondage into the Promised Land. Pharaoh proved to be stubborn and he refused to let the people go, so the Lord sent a series of plagues on Egypt to persuade him to change his mind. The climax of these plagues was the death of all the first-born in Egypt. Pharaoh let the people go, but quickly changed his mind and pursued them with his army to the shores of the Sea of Reeds. The Lord parted the waters of the sea by means of a strong east wind (Exodus 14) and the Israelites crossed to safety, leaving the pursuing army of Pharaoh trapped in the mud, to be engulfed by the returning waters.

The Israelites journeyed to Mount Sinai and there received the covenant and the Ten Commandments. At Sinai the Lord appeared to Moses and Israel in a way which is recalled in every account in the psalms of God’s coming to save his people. When the Lord appeared on Sinai Exodus records how:

There were peals of thunder and flashes of lightning, dense cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast; and, in the camp, all the people trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God; and they took their stand at the bottom of the mountain. Mount Sinai was entirely wrapped in smoke, because the Lord had descended on it in the form of fire. The smoke rose like smoke from a furnace and the whole mountain shook violently. Moses spoke, and God answered him in the thunder…

(Exodus 19:16~19).

This appearance of the Lord (known as a theophany) on Sinai etched itself into the consciousness of Israel, and when the psalms speak of God’s appearing, it is usually in terms of earthquake, f ire, thunder and lightning.

Immediately following God’s appearance is the account of the giving of the Ten Commandments, Israel’s obligation under the covenant. One of the distinctive features of the psalms is their appeal to God as a God of justice, a God who is concerned above all for the widow, the orphan and the stranger. This revelation of God as a God of justice is inherent in the law given at Sinai.

From Mountain Sinai the Israelites wandered for forty years in the wilderness, and several incidents from those desert wanderings make their appearance in the psalms, especially the giving of water from the rock (Exodus 17:1-7) and the constant grumbling of the people against Moses and Aaron.

Finally, the Israelites approached the Promised Land, the land of Canaan. Their first victories were over Sihon king of the Amorites and Og king of Bashan, and Israel’s victory over these two kings features in the psalms as a symbol of God’s power to bring his people into the promised land and to give them victory over all their enemies.

This whole experience of the Exodus, the giving of the Law at Sinai, the wilderness wanderings, and the entry into the promised land is reinterpreted by the New Testament in the light of Christ. The sentence and the antiphons of the psalms in the Office indicate the way in which these events are taken up in Christ and so in Christian prayer.

For the Church, the Exodus from Egypt foreshadows the Cross and Resurrection of Christ, the founding events of the new covenant, the mighty acts of God by which he delivered his people from slavery to sin and fear of death.

Jesus’ commandments become the Christians’ law – Matthew’s Gospel presents Jesus as the new Moses who delivers his teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, a teaching which supersedes the Law given on Mount Sinai.

The wandering in the wilderness becomes a symbol of the Christian’s journey through this world on the way to the promised land, to the presence of God in heaven. On this journey we are fed with the manna of the Eucharist and the water from the rock is none other than the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Commentary from ‘The School of Prayer’ – an Introduction to the Divine Office for All Christians, by John Brook, The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota (1992).