Exodus 2,1-10. Christfest I

Exodus 2,1-10 0624

Christfest I 5 

Nativity of Jesus 

25. December 2023

1. ℣ Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given: 

    ℟ And the government shall be upon His shoulder (Isaiah 9,6). 

O blessed Jesus! May You be eternally praised and thanked for Your incarnation and birth; You became a child of man so that we may become children of God. Now human nature is truly exalted; You have united it with Your Divinity. O love, O grace! As surely as human nature is united with Divine nature, so surely has eternal friendship, eternal reconciliation, eternal peace and eternal love been established between God and man. [1] Amen. (Starck 481; 57 English). 

2. »Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”« 

3. Moses was born into slavery. Egypt had enslaved the ancestors of Jacob for approximately 13 years under a new pharaoh, Ahmose (child of the moon), who ushered in the 18. Dynasty. [2] Israel would suffer and toil under Egyptian slavery and oppression for another 80 years until Yahweh lead them out of Egypt under the leadership of Moses (draw out). 

4. Mankind had been enduring another slavery far longer than what Israel had experienced in Egypt. Since Adam’s Fall, men and women had been enslaved to original sin, the harsh taskmaster Satan and the curse upon sin. People are fettered by their passions and vices that often rule over their vices and desires to do good. »Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, then you will be free indeed« (John 8,34-36).

5. Moses lead the people of Israel for forty years. He guided them out of Egypt, gave them the Sinai covenant and brought them to the border of Canaan the Promised Land. Before they entered the land he told the people: »Yahweh your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers; it is to him you shall listen« (Deuteronomy 18,15). That Prophet was the Christ. »For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ« (John 1,17). 

6. Pharaoh’s daughter named the baby Moses because she drew him out of the water. With His birth, Jesus draws us out of the turbulent waters of our sins, liberates mankind, sets us free from the Devil’s tyranny and saves us from our sin. 

7. Moses and the Prophets pointed to Jesus, and at His birth He fulfilled the Scriptures. »The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth« (John 1,14).

8. Ah, dearest Jesus, holy Child,

Prepare a bed, soft, undefiled,

A quiet chamber set apart

For You to dwell within my heart 

 (From Heaven Above to Earth I Come lsb 358,13 2021 Martin Luther 1483-1546). 

This is most certainly true. 

9. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4,7).  Amen. 

10. Let us pray. O Lord, O God, to whom glory is sung in the highest while on earth peace is proclaimed to men of goodwill, grant that goodwill to us, Thy servants, cleanse us from all our sins and give perpetual peace to us, and to all people. Amen. (The Nativity of Our Lord, Vespers Collect 2. The Daily Office. Copyright © 1965 Concordia Publishing House.) 

To God alone be the Glory 

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

✠

[1] O du holdseliger Jesu! Dir sey ewig Lob und Dank gesagt für deine Menschwerdung und Geburt; dur wirst ein Menschenkind, damit wir Gottes Kinder werden möchten. Nun ist die menschliche Natur recht erhöht; du hast sie mit deiner Gottheit vereinigt. O Liebe, o Gnade! So gewiß die menschliche Natur mit der göttlichen vereinigt ist, so gewiß ist zwischen Gott und den Menschen eine ewige Freundschaft, eine ewige Versöhnung, ein ewiger Friede und eine ewige Liebe gestiftet. 

[2] The last king of the 17. Dynasty, Kamose (d. 1540 bc), drove out the last of the Hyksos who had invaded and ruled Lower Egypt as the 15. and 16. Dynasties. His brother, Ahmose (ruled 1539-15 bc), founded the 18. Dynasty and ushered in a new period of political stability in Egypt known as the New Kingdom period. Ahmose is probably the new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph. Moses was born in 1526 bc, 13 years into Ahmose’s reign (Andrew Steinmann From Abraham to Paul 81-82). Israel’s total time of slavery would be around 93 years.