The Holy Prophet Moses

 First of God’s prophets
 Born in Egypt to a poor Israelite
 Death of the firstborn Israelite sons
 To decrease their population
 Hard to enslaved a growing population
 Mother hid Moses in a basket by the Nile
 Pharaoh’s daughter found him
 Adopted as own son
 Treated as one of the family in the royal palace

 Moses knew he was an Israelite by birth
 Would visit Jewish slaves often
 Saw Egyptian hit a slave
 Killed the Egyptian
 Fled to the land of Midian
 Became a herdsman
 Married Zipporah
 Raised a family

 God appeared to Moses in the form of a burning bush
 Told him to return to Egypt to free Jews from slavery
 God revealed His name
 Yahweh
 “I AM”
 Source of all that exists
 Shows He is eternal

 Moses chose his brother Aaron to be his companion
 Moses probably had a speech impediment
 Told Pharaoh: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel,
‘let my people go’” (EX 5:1)
 Pharaoh increased the labor on the Israelites
 Ten plagues:
 Water turned to blood, frogs, gnats, flies, animals died, boils, hailstorms, locusts destroyed crops, three days of darkness
 Pharaoh still didn’t budge

 10 th Plague: Death of the firstborn son and animal
 God warned Israelite people
 Told them to have religious dinner to show they were part of His people and thus be spared
 Passover meal
 Kill a lamb and eat it with unleavened bread, bitter herbs
 Eat standing, ready for a journey
 Sprinkle lamb’s blood on wooden door posts
 Angel of death would pass over these houses
 Passover is celebrated even today by the Jewish people

 Passover
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Israelites gather at God’s command
Sacrificed paschal lamb, which they ate
Sprinkled blood on wooden doorposts to save themselves from death
Freed from slavery by this event
The Mass
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Catholics gather at God’s command
Offer up the “Lamb of God” (Christ), whom we receive in
Holy Communion
Blood of Christ sprinkled on the wood of the cross
 We receive his shed blood at Holy Communion
We are freed from death and slavery of sin through this

 Journey of the Jews out of Egypt
 Pharaoh allowed them to leave out of fear
 Changed his mind
 God parted path through the Red Sea
 Closed in on Egyptians
 Complained of lack of food/water as soon as they were free
 Water from a rock
 Manna (heavenly bread)

 Reached Mt. Sinai after 3 months
 God appeared to Moses and gave him the 10
Commandments
 Decalogue
 “The Law”
 Gave them to Moses verbally
 Told the people
 God called Moses to back to Mt. Sinai to give him tablets
 People worshipping golden calf in meantime
 Moses smashed Commandments, received new ones
 Apologized to God on behalf of the people

 God’s message to the people: “Behold, I make a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been wrought in all the earth or in any nation… Observe what I command you this day”
 Obedience showed loyalty to God
 Ark of the Covenant built to house the 10
Commandments
 Carried with them wherever they went

 Priests were to sacrifice animals in worship
 Ask for forgiveness
 Reminder of the Covenant
 Sacrifices entail letting go what is special to us
 Sacrifices were placed on a consecrated altar

 Moses doubted God’s power at a point during the
Exodus
 Told he would not make it to the Promised Land
 Shows that even 1 sin is too many
 40 years of wandering in the desert
 Israelites entered the Promised Land soon after burying Moses

 Joshua succeeded Moses as ruler
 Great warrior
 Judges ruled after Joshua
 Military heroes who won great victories for God’s people

 Israelites wanted kings
 All the other nations had them
 Samuel was the prophet who anointed God’s kings
 Saul
 First king
 Unworthy, soon died

 Shepherd boy
 Defeated the Philistine soldier Goliath
 Second king of Israel
 Greatest king in their history
 Wrote the psalms
 Beautiful prayers and hymns to God
 Made Jerusalem the capital of the Jewish nation
 God made the promise that one of David’s descendants would be a king who would rule forever

 Next king of Israel
 Wise ruler
 Built Temple in Jerusalem
 Very ornate

 Israel divided soon after Solomon’s death
 North: Israel
 South: Judah
 Judah remained faithful to God and the Covenant
 It was from the “line of Judah” that Jesus was descended