Scripture with the Fathers

The Israelites have crossed the Sea of Reeds and the Egyptian army is destroyed and seeing the enemies of Israel destroyed, compose a song of praise to God. We look at the original Hebrew language of key words to gain insight into the song itself. If we read this through the lens of the Church Fathers, we won't be surprised.

Why Does Jesus wait until the fourth watch of the night, (between 3AM to 6AM)? Peter walks on the water, but then sinks, why? The disciples, for the first time, worship Jesus. Jewish men know the first commandment. After Jesus gets into the boat, the wind ceases, immediately; "and the disciples worship him." How is it possible that these Jewish men worship Jesus? Don't they know the first commandment? What does this say about Jesus? We hear from Jerome and Chrysostom, Curtis Mitch and Dr. Edward Sri.

After the Hebrews complain about the situation in which they are lead by Moses to the edge of the sea in front of them, the Egyptians behind them and the Philistines are on the road along the Mediterranean Sea, so the Hebrews travel south to a place to where they are hemmed in by the wilderness, the Egyptians and the sea. They are boxed in by nature and the enemies of the sons of Israel. Moses stretches out his hands and a "strong east wind blows all night" and the Israelites cross on dry land through the sea. Why would God bring them to this place? Why place them in this difficult place? We look at 1 Cor. 10:1-2, St. Basil the Great and St. Cyril of Alexandria and Dr. Scott Hahn and Curtis Mitch.

The Apostles are in the boat on the Sea of Galilee, while Jesus remains to pray. He comes to them in the fourth watch of the night. Jesus walks on the sea. Is there something about walking on the sea? Were there instances of prophets who walked on the sea?

We explore the Old Testament and the original Greek language to gain insight on the significance of this event.

The Hebrews left Egypt in great jubilation on their way to where Moses will lead them, a "land flowing with milk and honey." As they traveled Moses, following the Lord's direction to "turn back" stops at a land wherein they are hemmed in by the wilderness and the Sea of Reeds as directly translated from the original Hebrew, and seemed to be trapped by the geography of the land and sea. The Egyptians become more hardened in their hearts against the Hebrews and begins a military campaign to stop their escape. Where did this happen? Is that even important? We know from the text that when the Hebrews crossed the Sea of Reeds, there "was a wall of water to their right and to their left." Seemingly trapped by the land and sea and by the advancing army of pharaoh, the Hebrews complain and cry to go back to Egypt. Why would having just been freed from slavery would they want to go back to slavery?

We start off with St. John Chrysostom and St. Jerome and dive into Old Testament and New Testament Scriptural references. God/Jesus works a miracle of feeding the "sheep" by having the disciples distribute the food. This miracle points to and is brought to its fulfillment in the Eucharist as we see in the Gospel of John. We look to 2Kings 4:1-7; Psalm 78:19 and John 21:15-19.

The Israelites are lead away from Egypt and as they leave, are instructed sacrifice the first to open the womb to the Lord of all the clean animals, and to redeem the unclean and the humans. St. Cyril gives us a Christological view of this redemption. As they leave Egypt, God instructs the Israelites to not take the Philistine road, the shortest route to Canaan, but rather toward the wilderness and the Reed Sea. The Ephraimites had met their destruction along the road of the Philistines and were destroyed. Who were the Ephraimites? We look ahead in the Book of Chronicles to answer that question. Why were the descendants of Ephraim, Joseph's younger son noted and not Manasseh who was the older? Dr. Hahn and Curtis Mitch explain this unusual pattern in Genesis. We review the importance of the Father's blessing, which involved the passing on of the priesthood to the first born son.

We begin by reading Matthew 14:13-36. Jesus withdraws from Judea upon learning of the execution/martyrdom of John the Baptist. Is Jesus a coward, or prudent? By what means did Jesus depart? What does that have to do with anything? We hear from St. Jerome and St. John Chrysostom that give us insight. We look at the feeding of the five thousand or commonly known as the multiplication of the loaves. Why is this significant? How many people were there including women and children? Was there ever another event that would give an indication that the Messiah would do such a thing?

What does it mean to be consecrated to God? Why the first born male is consecrated and not any first born? Where did the Israelites approach the Red Sea? What is this pillar of cloud and the fire that leads the way for the Israelites? We look to Dr. Hahn, St. Cyril, St. Augustine and the Catechism of the Catholic Church to gain insight to this prefigurement of the freedom from sin and death effected by Jesus Christ in the foreshadowing of the Exodus of the Israelites from slavery to Pharaoh.

What does it mean to be consecrated to the Lord? Why was a redemption of the first born demanded by God as a commandment? Why is God requiring a sacrifice as the price of redemption? We see the typology of the fire and cloud, the liturgical services in the redemption of the first born. We look to Dr. Hahn, St. Cyril, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church