Christmas and Moses

By Archimandrite Vassilios Bakoyiannis

Jesus is called the “son of Abraham” (Matt. 1:2) because He was born from Abraham’s lineage. He was born a Jew thanks to Abraham.

Abraham’s descendants left Canaan, Abraham’s homeland, and migrated to Egypt, where they remained for four hundred years (Acts 7:6). When the right time came, the Lord led them back to Canaan, today’s Israel, for one single purpose: to prepare the “ground” for Christ’s birth.

It was a journey undertaken and carried out by God through Moses. God Himself provided for the Israelites’ food; every morning they found their meal at the door of their tent (Exod. 16:35). Their clothes and shoes never wore out, and their feet never developed calluses (Deut. 8:4; Num. 12:3). And there were many other wondrous and unprecedented things like these.

September: Day 4: Teaching 4: The Burning Bush Icon of the Mother of God

 

September: Day 4: Teaching 4: 
The Burning Bush Icon of the Mother of God
 
(How Should We Honor the Mother of God?)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Among the titles by which the Holy Church honors the Most Holy Theotokos is the title "the Burning Bush." It is found in ecclesiastical hymns (Akathist Canon, Ode 6, Troparion 4). There is also a special feast day for the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos of the Burning Bush. On this icon, she has been depicted since ancient times as surrounded by a fiery glow. The aforementioned feast day is celebrated (September 4) on the day of commemoration of the Holy Prophet and God-seer Moses. This is undoubtedly because Moses was granted a vision that had a typological relation to the title of the Mother of God as the Burning Bush. Near Mount Sinai, in the desert, Moses, while tending his father-in-law's flock, saw a bush, i.e. a thorn bush, in which the Lord Himself appeared to him in a fiery flame. The bush burned, yet was not consumed. This miracle prefigured the mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God. The Virgin Mary served this mystery. She received in her womb the fire of the Divinity, and like the bush engulfed in flames, she remained unharmed; thus, the Virgin Mary preserved not only her life but also her virginity, remaining untouched by the Divine essence that dwelled within her.

September: Day 4: Teaching 3: Holy Prophet Moses

September: Day 4: Teaching 3: 

Holy Prophet Moses
 
(Lessons From His Life:
a. God's Providence in Each of our Lives;
b. Let Us Not Be Carried Away By a Brilliant External Position, but Serve the One God)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Among all the holy personalities of the times before the coming of Christ, the most remarkable is the Prophet and God-seer Moses, whose memory is celebrated today. He delivered the Jewish people from slavery, miraculously led them out of Egypt, gave them the God-written law and led them to the Promised Land. He is the first sacred and divinely inspired writer of Genesis; he was glorified by the entire Old Testament Church; our Savior Christ Himself often pointed to him, and conversed with him on Tabor. Let us listen, brethren, to what the holy history tells us about him.

Moses was born in Egypt at the most unfortunate time, when the Egyptian kings issued a decree to cast all Jewish babies into the Nile River. Moses' mother, after his birth, kept him secretly with her for three months; finally, surrendering to the will of God, she took a reed basket, tarred it, put her infant son in it and lowered it into the water in a bay of the Nile River. Meanwhile, she left behind her daughter, Moses' sister, and ordered her to watch from afar what would happen to the baby. And so, by God's providence, the daughter of Pharaoh the King came at that very time and to the very place where the basket with the baby was floating. Seeing the basket, the princess ordered her maids to take it and, opening it, saw a crying baby in it, understood that this baby must be one of the children of the Jews, and out of compassion she decided to save his life. Looking at this, Moses' sister went to the princess and said to her: "Would you like me to call a wet nurse to raise this baby?" and, having received permission, brings her mother to her. Thus Moses was delivered from death, returned to the bosom of his own mother, and was safely nursed and brought up by her. Wondrous are the destinies of God! Ineffable is the wisdom, goodness and power of the Providence of the world!