St. Irenaeus Ministries

The law defines the high priest's garments, which includes the twelve  tribes of Israel for a remembrance to God. The ordination of priests  also includes an ablution which relates to baptism, which can be seen  also in Heb 6:1f. God also identifies things that are holy and not for  outsiders in the ordination process. There is also a description of  the incense altar in the tabernacle. The people...

The book of Exodus dedicates significant space to the description of  the tabernacle of the Lord. This may be difficult to read through, but  it is important to the understanding of the worship of God. The Ark of  the Covenant points to Mary (as we can see in Luke  1:35  and in the  Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth, similar to 2 Samuel 6, and Revelation  12), and the holy place of the tabernacle an...

The laws of God are in many cases very practical and based on the  environment that we are in. Strangers should be cared for and not  abused by being thrown into the cold without a cloak or placed into  debt. The escaped beasts of burden of a stranger should be returned to  a stranger's owner as well as it would be for your own. The Hebrews  were strangers in Egypt, and they should remember that w...

Exodus 21-23 forms what is known as the Book of the Covenant. This  continues after the Ten Commandments with a discussion of the laws  regarding slavery, as the Hebrews were just recently delivered from  slavery. Slavery here should not be confused with the racial slavery  that was common in Europe later. The laws on slavery describe the  practice of this institution as well as the ways in which...

Moses' father-in-law Jethro hears that he has led the Israelites to  freedom and seeks him out. Moses and Aaron eat a sacrificial meal with  Jethro, a Midianite who offers sacrifice. This was before the Law was  given. Jethro tells Moses to intercede for the people, to bring their  cases to God, and to bring the law to them. Jethro tells Moses to  appoint people to oversee the people and to delega...

* Taking a short break from the regular Exodus series, this week's podcast is a recent talk on the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit Talk The Holy Spirit is not a force of God, He is God Himself, and one of the three persons of God. The Holy Spirit is referred to as early as  Gen 1:2, but is not clearly revealed until Jesus' ministry. It is the  Holy Spirit who prompts us to holiness and floods our hearts...

The Hebrews have passed the Red Sea but they need water. When they  happen upon a watering place, the water is bitter, and the people  murmur. God shows Moses a tree, much as God shows the people the law,  and the water becomes sweet. God uses this to test the people to see  if they will now walk in His ways. Later, the people are hungry and murmur again. This time God provides  them with mana and...

The Hebrews leave Egypt and the Lord is with them with a pillar of  cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. After the Hebrews leave  Egypt, the Egyptians reflect on the fact that they have lost millions  of people from the land, and pursue the Hebrews. They reach a sea,  which is translated as the Red Sea in Greek but may have originally  been the sea of reeds in Hebrew, and possibly connected...

God tells Moses that He will bring one final plague. All the firstborn  of the land will die. There is no more discussion about Pharaoh  letting the Hebrews go. The time for negotiation is over, and now God  will let both the Hebrews and the Egyptians recognize that He is God. The Hebrews will be saved from this plague by taking a lamb, bonding  with it for five days, and then sacrificing the lamb...

God continues to send plagues on the Egyptians, sending the plague of  pestilence on the livestock, and then boils and hail, warning Pharaoh  publicly with the plague of hail to shelter the livestock, but those  who did not fear God did not shelter them. After that Moses warns of a  plague of locusts which devastate the land, and Pharaoh's advisors  tell him to give in, because of all the damage t...

Moses asks Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go to sacrifice to God, but  Pharaoh instead makes their work harder, as slaves are not to petition  Pharaoh. The overseers see that the workload is too much but Pharaoh  calls the workers idle, as they are asking for time to spend  worshipping God. When Pharaoh refuses, God hardens Pharaoh's heart initially to show  His great power, but soon Pharaoh hardens h...

Moses sees a bush that is burning but not consumed. He hears a voice  telling him to take off his shoes because it is a holy place. This is  not because it is inherently holy, but because God is in this place.  God tells Moses that He has seen His people's suffering and that He  will uses Moses to deliver them from Egypt. Moses protests, asking why God has chosen him. God explains that He  will gi...

Exodus is named after the Greek phrase for the road out, which is an  appropriate term for the events of the book. Ex  12:40  states that the  time in Egypt was 430 years, but the precise dating of the events  lends to two possibilities. The events can be dated in 1 Kings 6:1 to  480 years before the fourth year of the reign of Solomon, which  suggests the 15th century BC. Ex  1:11  suggests that...

Pope Benedict, in The Door of Faith, gives several practical methods  for growing in faith, which can be summarized by cultivating,  professing, intensifying celebration of, living, and rediscovering the  faith. Benedict asks us to profess our faith publicly during the year  of faith. The year of faith also provides an opportunity for love, as faith  requires charity.

Porta Fidei - Introduction The study of the Bible is part of the faith that we are asked to cultivate in the year of faith that the Pope has asked us to celebrate in the letter titled The Door of Faith. It is through this faith that we are brought into life, and through the proclamation of the word of God that we discover this faith. This must be faith in the God of Love, as Galatians 5:6 describe...

Jacob dies and Joseph embalms him and buries him in Caanan. Joseph's  brothers beg him to forgive them, stating that they are the servants  of God, and Joseph forgives them. Joseph dies and is embalmed and  buried in Egypt. During the Exodus, his body will be returned to the  land of Israel.

Jacob, nearing his death, begins to bless his sons. Jacob claims  Joseph's Egyptian-born sons as his own, incorporating them into his  heritage. This doubles Joseph's tribal allotment. Jacob also blesses  Ephraim, the secondborn, more than Manasseh, the firstborn. Jacob also  gives Joseph a mountain slope, and all the blessings on Joseph's  children will be remembered in Heb  11:21 . Jacob remembe...

Israel goes to Egypt and sees Joseph, his son once again. When he  meets with phararoh, Israel identifies himself as a shepherd, which  means that the Egyptians will set them apart in the land. Joseph buys all the  land in Egypt for pharaoh in exchange for feeding the people,  and the people are grateful. Israel begins to prepare for his death and makes Joseph promise to  bury him outside of Egypt...

Jacob sends his sons (except Benjamin) to Egypt to buy grain during  the famine. Joseph is shocked to see his brothers and accuses them of  being spies as part of a plan to test them. Joseph consents to give  his brothers grain, but keeps Simeon to ensure that they prove that  they are not spies.  Joseph gives them their grain but secrets the  money that they paid into the sacks of grain. When the...

Joseph was purchased by Potipher, but God was with Joseph. Joseph was  entrusted with the matters of Potipher's house, and Potipher's wife  attempts to seduce Joseph, but he refuses because it is wicked. When  he refuses, she falsely accuses him and Potipher throws him into prison. When he is in prison, Pharaoh's butler comes to Joseph and asks him to  interpret a dream. Joseph tells the butler th...

Joseph's brothers did not take kindly to him, but even more so after  he has a dream in which they bow down to him. The brothers conspire  againt Joseph, but Reuben convinces them not to kill Joseph, but  rather to trap Joseph in a well, and sell him to Ishmaelites, who sell  Joseph to Potipher, a functionary of the pharaoh. The brothers  convince Jacob that Joseph had been killed by an animal. Ju...

Dinah is raped by Shechem, who seeks to make her his wife. When his  father, Hamor, pleads on his behalf, the sons of Jacob convinced  Shechem's family to be circumcised so that they could slay all of them  while they were laid up after the surgery. When Jacob discovers this,  he rebukes them but says nothing more until he is on his deathbed.  Similarly, when Reuben takes up with Bilhah, his fathe...

Jacob returns home, knowing that this means that he will need to  confront Esau. On the way, he is met by angels of the Lord, who are  described the same way as the angels at Bethel. In the end, Jacob  sends a series of gifts in an effort to appease Esau. Jacob wrestles with a man, begging for a blessing, but discovers that  this is actually an angel. The angel blesses him and changes Jacob's  nam...

After Jacob has Joseph, he prepares to leave Laban. He offers to take  as his wages all speckled and spotted lambs. Laban sent all speckled  and spotted lambs away so that they could not breed, but Jacob places  spotted rods in front of the lambs, and they all produce speckled and  spotted offspring. When Jacob leaves Laban, Rachel steals Laban's household gods, and  when confronted, places them u...

As Isaac nears death, he prepares to give Esau a blessing, but Rebekah  conspires with Jacob to take this blessing by dressing him in Esau's  clothes. Jacob gives Isaac food and wine, and Isaac blesses him. When  he learns of the deception, he will not take back his blessing, as it  has already been spoken, and he tells Esau that he will serve his  brother, but that eventually he will break free....