Feasts of Meskerem 8
✞✞✞On this day we commemorate the Arch-prophet St. Moses and the Holy Priests Zacharias and Aaron✞✞✞
✞✞✞In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen!✞✞✞
✞✞✞Saint Moses the Arch-prophet✞✞✞
=>The holy prophets are numerous. And the gifts that they received from God are many and diverse. Be that as it may, St. Moses is greater than all the prophets. As scripture has said, none rose as he, before him or will rise after him. If asked “How that could be?”, it was as follows.
✞3,600 years after the creation of the world, Israel, 75 in number, because of famine, fled to Egypt. There, his (Jacob’s/ Israel’s) descendants lived for 430 years, 215 years honored and 215 as slaves.
✞During the time of their bondage they built 2 cities called “Raamses” and “Pithom/’Gamse’.” When their hardships increased, their cries reached before God. And to save them, He willed the birth of one holy man. This man was called Moses.
✞His parents, called Amram and Jochebed, trusted in their Creator and were from the Tribe of Levi. Besides Moses, they bore Aaron and Miriam. During the time Moses was born, male children of Israel were being slaughtered. However, the Lord brought forth compassion to the conscious of the killers and he was spared.
✞Later, he was left on the River Nile when he was 3 months old and the daughter of Pharaoh, Tharmuth (Thermutis /Bithia), raised him in the palace. And she was the one that called him Moses and it means, “Drawn from water.” The name his parents gave him was “Melq’am” because at his birth his face radiated like an angel’s.
✞Later on, because St. Moses slapped the Pharaoh when he was 5 years old and was brought for justice, he took from a blazing coal to his mouth and stammered for the rest of his life. And as his mother, Jochebed, had raised him as a caregiver, when he was 40 years old, he shunned the luxury of the house of Pharaoh and to be called the son of the King. As St. Paul stated he chose to suffer affliction with the people of God than the pleasantness found in the house of gentiles (Heb. 11:24).
✞One day, after killing an Egyptian in support of his kinfolk, a Hebrew, he fled to Midian. There, he lived for 40 years herding the sheep of the priest Jethro, and married to Zipporah the Ethiopian. He also produced 2 children. When he was 80 years old, God spoke to him at Mt. Sinai. And He sent him to deliver the people from the bands of their yoke.
✞St. Moses with his brother Aaron and Oshea (Joshua) smote the Egyptians with 9 plagues and the death of the firstborn which was the 10th miracle. And freed Israel.
✞The deeds of Moses cannot be finished by enumerating.
*He parted the Red Sea (Erythraean Sea) and enabled the people to crossover.
*He submerged the Egyptians and their chariots in the sea.
*He brought forth Manna from the clouds for the people.
*He brought forth water from a rock.
*He led them with a pillar of light.
*He covered/veiled them with 7 clouds.
*And he defeated all their enemies.
✞His people, for all these that he had done, rather made him suffer. Nevertheless, because he was a kind, sincere and meek person, he gave himself instead of them many times. As it was said, “Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth” in Num. 12:3. When St. Moses led the people for 40 years, he spoke with God for 570 times.
✞And because his face shone due to the grace he had, people could not gaze at his countenance. And when the tablets that had the 10 commandments he received with the Ark of Zion were broken, the Lord wrote on the replacements which he carved. “Is not the rest of the life of the Saint written in the Pentateuch?”
✞A lesser one like me shall stop here. The holy, glorious, righteous, prophet and kind man, St. Moses, passed away at the age of 120 on Mt. Nebo and was buried by the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Sachiel. And they also hid his burial ground (Jude 1:9).✞✞✞Saint Zacharias the Priest✞✞✞
