Introduction to Exodus[1]
Meet the Bible's
freedom-fighting, plague-inducing, show-stopping revolutionaries: Moses, his
brother Aaron, and of course, God that's ready to set the Israelites free from
the bonds of slavery in Egypt. On the road, it will rain fire, bread, and
commandments.
Traditionally, Exodus was thought to have been written
by Moses himself, but it is most likely an amalgamation of texts—like almost
everything else in the Bible—put together between 400 and 600 BCE. Whatever you
believe, Exodus is a pivotal moment; it is about a community trying to redefine
itself as the ancient world underwent huge changes.
Around this time, the
Greeks were at the highest point of their culture, and the Romans were getting
started. The Greeks worshipped Zeus while Exodus was being ready.
Written in Hebrew, Exodus
is a combination of national narrative—the stories that help identify a country—and
straight-up law. The day your people went from slavery or oppression to freedom
is the day that your culture became, well, your culture. For the Israelites, being
freed from Egypt and taking on the covenant with God was huge politically,
socially, economically, and religiously. It is the perfect storm of big moments.
A quick note about the
historical Exodus. Archaeologically, there is no evidence for a mass migration
of people on the scale the Bible describes. For us (and for you), this is
nearly irrelevant; no matter what happened, the stories in this book have had an
enormous amount of social impact on Western culture. Like it or not, the
stories—not the historicity—are what wield the power.
What is Book of
Exodus About and Why Should I Care?
The Ten Commandments.
The Exodus story shapes
the entire rest of the Bible. Because it is such a pivotal moment in Israelite
culture, the story, the rules, and the aura reverberate throughout the rest of
the book. It is the point at which God and the Israelites—the two biggest
characters of the Hebrew Bible—get to know each other.
But what about Genesis?
Isn't that the biggest, most defining book? No-Exodus. Take a minute to think
about what a book like Genesis does; it is a collection of stories, myths, and
legends, right? But Exodus takes those themes and vaults them onto a much
larger stage. God does not help out one family—he helps out a nation. The Ten
Commandments do not apply to just Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob—they apply to all
the Israelites. We are going from family-centered to nation-centered, just like
that.
And the rest of the Hebrew
Bible will be concerned with this issue: how to get God to participate in
Israelite life. This is the crash course on what God is like in the
"flesh," what his rules are, and how he acts in public places. The
whole Hebrew Bible is concerned with God's relationship with the Israelites,
and it all starts right here.
February 6 First Saturday
Exodus, Chapter 1, Verse 17
The midwives, however, FEARED God; they did not do as the king of Egypt had ordered them, but let the boys live.
The book of Exodus retells the story of the leaving of the children of Abraham from the land of Egypt. God blessed Abraham’s descendants and they prospered and overpopulated the land. Egyptians then oppressed the Israelites and took action to control their population by commanding midwives to kill the male children born to the Israelite’s.
Nothing
ever changes it seems the midwives, were the king of Egypt’s version of our
Planned Parenthood. Yet, they the midwives feared God more than the King and
spared life. I do not think anyone in the Planned Parenthood organization has
any fear of God. The midwives of Egypt were ordered to kill only the male
children of the Israelites. In our modern world I wonder who the equivalent of
the King of Egypt is. I wonder who or what sex and races are the equivalents of
the Israelite children?
Five
consecutive Saturdays in reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
The
practice of the First Saturday devotion was requested by Our Lady of Fatima,
who appeared to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal, multiple times
starting in 1917. She said to Lucia, the oldest of the three children: “I shall
come to ask . . . that on the First Saturday of every month, Communions of
reparation be made in atonement for the sins of the world.” Years later she
repeated her request to Sr. Lucia, the only one still living of the three young
Fatima seers, while she was a postulant sister living in a convent in Spain:
“Look, my daughter, at my Heart, surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful
men pierce me at very moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You at least
try to console me, and say that I promise to assist at the hour of death, with
the graces necessary for salvation, all those who, on the first Saturday of
five consecutive months, shall confess, receive Holy Communion, recite five
decades of the rosary, and keep me company for 15 minutes while meditating on
the 15 mysteries of the rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me.”
Conditions
to Fulfill the First Saturday Devotion
There
are five requirements to obtain this promise from the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
On five consecutive first Saturdays of the month, one should:
1.
Have the intention of consoling the Immaculate Heart in a spirit of reparation.
2.
Go to confession (within eight days before or after the first Saturday).
3.
Receive Holy Communion.
4.
Say five decades of the Holy Rosary.
5.
Meditate for 15 minutes on the mysteries of the Holy Rosary
with the goal of keeping Our Lady company (for
example, while in church or before an image or statue of Our Lady).
Read How to Make Your First Saturday Rosary Meditation According to Sr. Lucia
Why
Five Saturdays?
Our
Lord appeared to Sr. Lucia on May 29, 1930 and gave her the reason behind the
five Saturdays devotion. It is because there are five types of offenses and
blasphemies committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary:
1.
Blasphemies against the Immaculate Conception
2.
Blasphemies against Our Lady’s perpetual virginity
3.
Blasphemies against her divine maternity, in refusing at the same time to
recognize her as the Mother of men
4.
Blasphemies of those who publicly seek to sow in the hearts of children,
indifference or scorn or even hatred of their Immaculate Mother
5.
Offenses of those who outrage Our Lady directly in her holy images
Never
think that Jesus is indifferent to whether or not His mother is honored!
Reflect
today on what it took to make Christ the gentle shepherd of our souls!
Daily Devotions
·
Saturday Litany of the Hours
Invoking the Aid of Mother Mary
·
Offering
to the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Make
reparations to the Holy Face
·
Rosary
·
Mass
[1] https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/bible/exodus
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