The escape from Egypt

During the Fast of St. Phillip, Byzantine Christians pray regularly the service of the Paraklesis. A series of prayers offered to the Theotokos with intentions for our fellow Christian men.* In the course of these prayers, one theme strikes me. Ode 1 reads, "Crossing the waters on dry land, in that way escaping, from the evils of Egypt's land, the Israelites cried out exclaiming: To our Redeemer and God, let us now sing!" We see an historic reference here to the flight of the Israelites from Egypt, but we also tend to forget that there is also a spiritual element to the texts as well. Of course, we see the obvious historical reference. In the sacred history, Israel is subjected to the slavery of Egypt, Moses is chosen by God to deliver the Israelites from Pharaoh's hands, and God unleashes severe plagues on Egypt. It is easy to see the historic meaning and neglect other meanings. But as the Archimandrite told me a year and a half ago, the Scripture are not only shallow enough for an infant to wade in, they are also deep enough for an elephant to drown in!

It is largely in our prayers that we see the spiritual elements at play. In the Psalms, when King David speaks of Babylon, it often refers to a metaphorical place of spiritual captivity. Babylon had not increased in power when King David was alive. Yet King David speaks of a captivity as if it happened or was happening in his days. There is simultaneously prophecy and metaphorical reflection on our own spiritual captivity to the Devil in the Psalms. I will write more on those at another time. In the prophesies of Isaiah and Ezekiel, there are two instances where the Prophets cease speaking of the earthly Kings and refer to the Fall of Lucifer from Heaven. When Isaiah speaks of the King of Babylon and when Ezekiel speaks of the King of Tyre. There may be a typographical imaging in the Kings of Babylon and Tyre respectively that correlate to the Devil's rebellion against God, but the texts are primarily speaking of a spiritual being that has rebelled against God's order.

No truer is this than when we gather to pray the service of the Small Supplicatory Canon to the Theotokos known as the Paraklesis. For when we are confronted with the Israelites being led out of Egypt, we are next confronted with the praise of the Theotokos:

"Most Holy Theotokos save us. With many temptations surrounding me, searching for salvation, I have hastened to you; O Mother of the Word and Ever-Virgin, from all distresses and dangers deliver me."

In the East, the concept of sin is one of our own spiritual captivity. How much more fitting to begin this forty day fast with the realization that the Israel crying out to sing praise to the Theotokos is in fact the very Israel of today! Certain teachers have claimed that Israel still exists as a distinct country in the Scriptures or is of the Jewish inheritance still but those teachers have failed to see in Scriptures that a new Israel has emerged. When Jesus came into the world, He came into a world that was held hostage to sin and the Devil. He came to oust the Devil's rule from this world and release the captives from Hades. This is what St. Peter reflects on. It is why St. Peter compares the waters of regeneration in baptism to the flight of Israel from Egypt. The Israel of the Old Testament was the prefigurement of the Israel of the New Testament. What these teachers miss in their delusion is that the material Israel was under the old agreement. There now reigns a new agreement. The world that is Israel is now seen fulfilled in the Church. So together with the Israelites, we too celebrate our freedom from Egypt, even as we begin a new forty year wandering, which for us is forty days of fasting until the Nativity Feast.

"Assaults of the passions have shaken me, my soul to its limits, has been filled with much despair, bring peace O Maiden, in the calmness, Of your own Son and your God all-blameless One."

Free us from the hand of spiritual Egypt. Free us from the bondage which sin holds to our souls. Free us from the chains of imprisonment, this spiritual slavery we find ourselves in under the Devil. Be with us during these next forty days of wandering. Without the understanding that the Church is Israel, the New Covenant (Testament) becomes almost meaningless. The prayer life of the Church becomes almost void. We are marching forward, away from Egypt, on toward our Hope, on toward the Lord, led by His Holy Light in the Theotokos. She is the bush that did not burn for she held Him Who is Above All in her womb. She is the Ladder that leads Jacob to Heaven. She is the Ark of the Covenant which we now carry with us. "To God and the Savior, you've given birth; I ask you, O Virgin, from the dangers deliver me!"

To the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit be the glory, unto ages and ages, Amen!

*I offered two of my friends names this year, both of whom have difficult job situations and one has been through many of the spiritual challenges I have been through.