Saint Rabanus Maurus' Commentary on Exodus 14:1-15:1

 Translated by Qwen.

St Rabanus Maurus' Commentary on Exodus 14:1-15:1 

On the Crossing of the Sons of Israel to the Red Sea and the Suffocation of the Egyptians in the Waters

"And Moses said to the people: Do not fear, stand and see the magnalia (great works) of the Lord which He will do today. For the Egyptians whom you now see, you shall never see again forever, etc." (Exodus 14).

From Augustine: How are these words to be understood, since the Israelites saw the Egyptians afterward? Either because those who saw them then did not see them anymore, because both those who were pursuing died, and these [Israelites] each died on their own day of death? For their descendants saw the descendants of those [Egyptians]. Or is "you shall not see them" to be understood as "not as today"? Not as today, pursuing [you] as enemies and coming upon you with such a large column that there is absolutely no question nor about the eternal time which he placed here. Because even if they shall see each other, surely at the time of the resurrection, they shall not see each other as today.

From Origen: But meanwhile Moses cries out to the Lord. How does he cry out? No voice of his clamor is heard, and yet God says to him: "Why do you cry to me?" I wish to know how the saints cry out to the Lord without a voice. The Apostle teaches in Galatians 4 that God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying "Abba, Father." And he added: "The Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words." And again Romans 8: "But He who searches the hearts knows what the Spirit desires, because according to God He intercedes for the saints." Thus, with the Holy Spirit interceding before God through the silence of the saints, the clamor is heard.

And what after this? Moses is ordered to strike the sea with the rod so that it may gape open and yield to the entering people of God, and the elements may serve the divine will, and the waters which were feared on the right and left may become a wall for the servants of God, so that they not only know no destruction but also exhibit protection.

It follows: "And when Moses had stretched out his hand over the sea, the Lord took it away with a strong and burning wind blowing all night, and turned it into dry land, etc." What is it for Moses to stretch out his hand over the sea unless to show through Scripture that the effect of divine power was in the waters? "The Lord took it away with a strong and burning wind blowing," surely that wind of which it is said in the Psalms: "In a violent spirit You shall break the ships of Tharsis" (Psalm 47). And in the Acts of the Apostles it is written that while the disciples were reclining in the upper room of Sion on the day of Pentecost, suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a strong wind and it filled the whole house where they were sitting, and there appeared to them parted tongues as of fire, and it sat upon each of them, and the rest (Acts 2). Therefore the Lord took away the sea with a strong and burning wind blowing all night, and turned it into dry land, when through all the time of this life, which the night signifies, the grace of the Holy Spirit makes the waters of baptism passable for believers, so that for those passing through them from spiritual Egypt into the land of promise, the host of enemies following in the same element may be suffocated.

Moreover, that hour of the night in which this crossing was made fits well with the divine sacrament. For it follows: "The morning watch had come, and behold the Lord looking down upon the camps of the Egyptians through the column of fire and cloud killed their army and overthrew the wheels of the chariots, and they were carried into the deep, and the rest." It was said above that the column of fire and cloud signified the Mediator Himself of God and men, gentle to the just, terrible to sinners, supporting the pious and killing the impious. Therefore, in the morning watch, when our Savior, the triumphator of death, ascending from the lower regions rose again in glory, it is well said that in the morning watch the Lord looking down upon the camps of the Egyptians through the column of fire and cloud killed their army. For He killed the army of spiritual Egyptians with the true Pharaoh, when He submerged the devil and his satellites with all spiritual wickedness and the multitude of sins in the spiritual waters where believers, baptized by the likeness of His death, rise from the death of sins, and condemned them to eternal destruction. Nor will it be permitted for them to have the true Israelites, who are predestined to eternal life, under their power any longer, because "whom He foreknew, He also called; and whom He called, He also justified; whom He also justified, He also glorified" (Romans 8).

"And the waters returning covered the chariots and the horsemen of all the army of Pharaoh who had followed them into the sea. Not even one of them remained."

From Origen: For the wave is forced into a heap, and the water pressed back upon itself is curved, the liquid receives solidity, and the bottom of the sea dries into dust. Understand the goodness of God the Creator, if He compels all things even against their nature to serve His will.

"But the sons of Israel went through the midst of the dry sea, and the waters were to them as a wall on the right and on the left." I have heard handed down by elders that in this division of the sea, for each of the tribes of Israel individual divisions of the waters were made, and a path was opened in the sea proper to each tribe. This is shown from that which is written in the Psalms: "Who divided the Red Sea into divisions" (Psalm 135), by which many divisions are shown to have been made, not one. But also by this which is said: "There Benjamin the younger in astonishment, the princes of Juda the leaders of them, the princes of Zabulon, the princes of Nephthalim" (Psalm 68), likewise a proper entrance seems to be enumerated for each tribe. I believed it religious not to keep silent these things observed by the elders in the Divine Scriptures.

What therefore are we taught by these things which we have said above, what is the sense of the Apostle in these things? He names this Baptism completed in Moses in the cloud and in the sea, so that you also, who are baptized in Christ in water and the Holy Spirit, may know that the Egyptians afterwards pursue and wish to recall you to their service, namely the rulers of this world and spiritual wickednesses to whom you served before, which indeed attempt to pursue but you descend into the water and escape unharmed, and with the filth of sins washed away, you ascend a new man prepared to sing a new canticle. But the Egyptians following after you will be submerged into the abyss, even if they seem to beg Jesus not to send them into the abyss yet.

But we can also take another understanding from these things. If you flee Egypt, if you leave the darkness of ignorance and follow the law of God, but the sea meets you and the waves of contradictors occur, strike you the struggling waves with the rod of Moses, that is, with the word of the law and the vigilance of the Scriptures, open a way for yourself by disputing through adversaries, the waves will yield immediately, and the waves being overcome will make place for the victors, wondering and astonished and fixed with stupor those who a little before were opposing. With the legitimate lines of disputation you will cut a straight path of faith, and you will profit so much in the word of doctrine that your listeners, whom you have instructed in the rod of the law, themselves now rise up against the Egyptians like the waves of the sea and not only impugn them but overcome and extinguish them. For they extinguish Egypt who do not do the works of darkness. They extinguish Egypt who live not carnally but spiritually. They extinguish Egypt who either repel sordid and impure thoughts from the heart or do not receive them at all, just as the Apostle says: "Taking the shield of faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one" (Ephesians 6). In this way therefore we can also today see the Egyptians dead and lying on the shore, their chariots and horses submerged. We can also see Pharaoh himself submerged, if we live with such faith that God may crush Satan under our feet quickly through Jesus Christ our Lord.

On the Canticle which Moses and the Sons of Israel Sang to the Lord After the Crossing of the Red Sea

"Then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this canticle to the Lord, and they said: Let us sing to the Lord, for He is gloriously magnified, the horse and the rider He has thrown into the sea" (Exodus 15).

From Origen: Indeed we read many canticles brought forth in the Divine Scriptures. However, the first of all these is this canticle which the people of God sang after the victory with the Egyptians and Pharaoh submerged. For it is the custom of the saints, when the adversary is conquered, as those who know that victory is prepared not by their own virtue but by the grace of God, to offer a hymn of gratulation to God. Nevertheless, they receive the hymn singing also timbrels in their hands, just as is reported concerning Mary the sister of Moses and Aaron.

And you therefore, if you shall cross the Red Sea, if you shall see the Egyptians submerged and Pharaoh extinguished and precipitated into the depth of the abyss, you can sing a hymn to God, you can emit a voice of gratulation and say: "Let us sing to the Lord, for He is gloriously magnified, the horse and the rider He has projected into the sea." Moreover, you will say these things better and more worthily if you shall have a timbrel in your hand, that is, if you have crucified your flesh with its vices and concupiscences, and if you have mortified your members which are upon the earth.

And yet let us see what it says: "Let us sing to the Lord, for He is gloriously glorified." And indeed, as much as we can conjecture, it seems to me that it is one thing to be glorified, another to be gloriously glorified. For the Lord Jesus Christ, when He took flesh from the Virgin for our salvation, was glorified, but not gloriously glorified. For it is said of Him: “We saw Him, and He had no form nor comeliness; and His countenance was without honor beyond the sons of men” (Isaiah). He was glorified even when He came to the Cross and endured death—but, so to speak, He was glorified humbly, not gloriously. Yet because it was necessary that Christ should suffer these things and thus enter into His glory, when He shall come in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels, when He shall come in His majesty to judge the earth—then also He will slay the true Pharaoh, that is, the devil, with the breath of His mouth.

Therefore, when He shall shine forth in the majesty of His Father, and after the coming of humility shall reveal in us the coming of glory, then not only is the Lord glorified—He is indeed glorified because He came to seek that which was lost—but He is gloriously glorified, when all honor the Son just as they honor the Father.

“The horse and its rider He has cast into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my praise, and He has become my salvation.” Those men who pursue us are horses, and, so to speak, all who are born according to the flesh are figuratively horses—but these have their riders. There are horses whom the Lord mounts, and they go about the whole earth; of them it is said: “Your cavalry is salvation.” But there are also horses who have as their riders the devil and his angels.

Judas was a horse; yet as long as he had the Lord as his rider, he belonged to the cavalry of salvation. For with the other apostles he was sent out and brought salvation to the sick and healing to the infirm. But when he withdrew himself to the devil—for after the morsel Satan entered into him—Satan became his rider, and, guided by his reins, he began to ride against the Lord and our Savior.

For all who persecute the saints are neighing horses, yet they have riders by whom they are driven—evil angels—and thus they are fierce. Therefore, the Lord cast the horse and the rider into the sea and became my salvation.

CONTINUE