If a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
+
For four hundred years, the Hebrews lived in Egypt, serving the pleasure of the Pharaoh. In the beginning, starting with Joseph and his brothers, the relationship was mutual, but the Hebrews continued to grow in number. Even Egypt during that time was blessed by the Lord, because of God’s covenant to Abraham that through this tiny group of people, all nations would be blessed: “[Gen 12:2-3 KJV] And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” The Pharaohs rejected to acknowledge this and so they cursed the Hebrews, first by subjecting the Hebrews to harsh labor, then by restrictive laws, and finally a systematic genocide by killing all the Hebrew baby boys.
The Hebrews cried to the Lord for deliverance because of their bondage and He heard their cry. God then called upon Moses and Aaron–through these men and many miraculous signs, he prepared to deliver the Hebrews from their oppressors. The culmination of the Exodus, was the night of the Passover, in which the Hebrews were saved by spreading the blood of a lamb upon their doorposts as the Angel of Death came through the land. The Egyptians finally gave up their dominance and ordered the Hebrews to leave.
Fifty days later–after the Hebrews have a miraculous escape from Pharaoh’s army at the Red Sea, receive Manna, the bread of Heaven, defeat the Amalekites–they come to the wilderness of Sinai where God announces his plans for them. In Exodus 19 he tells Moses: “[Exo 19:4-6 KJV] Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and [how] I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth [is] mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” Moses does tell Israel this, and the people respond that they will obey all of God’s words in order to be his peculiar treasure, a nation devoted to him and to be His. Then the people assemble at the base of the mountain, the priests and elders just slightly up the mountain, and Moses goes to the top of the mountain where God descends, so to speak, in fire and a thick cloud from which emanates a loud trumpet like noise. The people are terrified, bewildered as God gives to Moses his most special gift, the Law (Torah).
This moment is one of the most important within the history of Israel, and in fact the Jews commemorated this moment every year at the Feast of Pentecost, pente meaning 50, 50 days after the Passover. The feast is often called the Feast of Shavout or Festival of Weeks, which combines a celebration of the first fruits of harvest and the commemoration of the giving of the Torah to Moses at Mount Sinai. By the first century, Jewish men were required to present gifts at the Temple in Jerusalem for this feast, and the priests at the Temple would offer up two loaves of bread on the altar.
While it is easy to think of Torah here as just the 248 positive commandments and 365 negative commandments which God gave Moses, Torah literally means the teaching or instruction. Remember, it is through the Torah, following the commandments, that Israel will become a holy nation dedicated to God! Torah, then, will make Israel a nation set apart to the glory of God. This is a great end that God has for Torah and his people. He is calling them to be His own. In fact, within the Jewish tradition, the Rabbis often interpret the giving of Torah to be like a marriage ceremony. God, the Ruler of Rulers, presents the Torah to his bride, the nation of Israel, as dowry, and his bride responds, “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do” (Ex. 19:8). The covenant is made and God seeks unity with his beloved.
We find this imagery all over the OT, like in Hosea: “[Hos 2:19-20 KJV] And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.”
In many Jewish weddings, poems are read on the first day of ceremonies that remind the families of God’s marriage with His people. One of the more famous poems, by the 16th century mystic and poet Israel Najara (c.1550-c.1625), is a long meditation on God’s marriage proposal to Israel at Sinai: “The Bridegroom [God], Ruler of rulers, Prince of princes, Distinguished among the select, Whose mouth is pleasing and all of Whom is delightful, said unto the pious, lovely and virtuous maiden [the people of Israel] who won His favor above all women, who is beautiful as the moon, radiant as the sun, awesome as bannered hosts: Many days wilt thou be Mine and I will be thy Redeemer.” And it ends: “May the Bridegroom rejoice with the bride whom He has taken as His lot and may the bride rejoice with the Husband of her youth while uttering words of praise.” This is the type of unity and love that God desires to have with His people, and it’s what the Apostles were celebrating in Jerusalem while they were waiting for Christ’s gift to them.
And this is what I want you to see: the Exodus and all the wonderful events around Mt. Sinai foreshadow something even greater. They are for us types and images that are fulfilled and completed in the life and work of Christ.
In St. Bede’s sermon for Whitsunday, he points out how after 50 days after Christ’s sacrifice which is the Passover sacrifice which frees all men from death, he now leads the Apostles into the Upper Room, and he leads them into the presence of God Almighty: “Now that the grace of the Holy Spirit has been given more extensibly, [for people] to understand more fully and fulfill more perfectly the words of the holy gospel, the hearts of the faithful are raised up higher.” When we find the Apostles in Jerusalem, immediately we must think with Bede of the importance that there are twelve Apostles, representing Israel itself. And they are up on a mountain where Jerusalem sits, and St. Bede thinks back in the upper room, the same room where they celebrated Passover. Then a large wind fills the whole house where they are and tongues of fire descend upon their heads. Like Sinai, God Almighty has come upon Israel again, but this time all of Israel, represented by the 12 Apostles, have now entered the highest part of the mountain and stand in God’s presence. It is not just Moses, but through the gift of the Holy Ghost, all of the Apostles now dwell with God. This is the true marriage, the perfection of God’s people by His own gift. Israel could never be perfected by Torah, but through the gift of the Holy Ghost, the sanctifier, the Church now is the true Bride. And this Bride is no longer just made up of one nation, but now the Church through the Apostles teaches the good news to all nations, fulfilling the Abrahamic covenant and the prophecy in the Psalms: “From the rising of the sun to its setting, praise the name of the Lord; the Lord is high above all nations.” All nations, people from every part of the world can call upon the name of the Lord.
God works through the Church, His Bride, to bring all nations to Himself, so that: “[Jhn 1:12-13 KJV] As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, [even] to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” This is the power of the Holy Ghost and the great mystery of today’s feast: that through our baptisms, we are brought into the family of God Almighty, we are altogether His Bride. And we do not stand here today just remembering the time past, but the continual offer of God to be with his people. St. Bede continues in his sermon: “In order to stamp the memory of this more firmly on the hearts of believers, a beautiful custom of the holy Church has grown up, so that each year the mysteries of baptism are celebrated on [Whitsunday], and as a result a venerable temple is made ready for the coming of the Holy Spirit upon those who believe and are cleansed at the salvation-bearing baptismal font. In this way we celebrate not only the recollection of a former happening, but also a new coming in [the font] of the Holy Spirit upon new children by adoption.”
As we remember the Holy Spirit falling upon those Apostles, so also we now witness the Holy Spirit coming upon Joanna, right there at our bapitsmal font, as she is now made a member of the Church and marked as the Bride of Christ. As Christ said to us in the Gospel: “If a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” Now aided by the Holy Ghost, Joanna may keep the commandments of Jesus, and the divine life of the Trinity lives in her! With Joanna, we may all live a sanctified life and be presented to our Groom together as a worthy bride, and then enjoy the fruits of a blessed marriage.
This is our end! Joanna’s end, as well as your end, is a great marriage feast, as we see in Revelation 19: “[Rev 19:7-9 KJV] Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed [are] they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.” We are called to this marriage feast, one that we taste now at the altar in the Bread and Wine and which we will enjoy for eternity as we are united to God.
If a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
+