THE PRAISE OF VICTORY

 THE FIRST CANTICLE HAUS (ODE)

 

Moses the Prophet’s Praise In Adam Tune

 

 Bishop Mettaous

 

 

First: The Praise of Victory

The praise of the First Canticle Haus is the Praise of

Moses, which he sang with the children of Israel after

crossing the Red Sea, while Pharaoh and his soldiers

were drowning. It is exactly the same words said by

Mariam with the ladies while dancing. Chanting this

praise, also mentioned in Revelations They sing the song

of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the lamb,

saying: “Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord

God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of

the Saints! (Rev. 15:3)

The church feels it is standing by the glass sea in front of

the throne, singing with harps. It is clear that the Church

is living now in the faith of its salvation of the sea of the

world and the Pharaoh of the mind, as if we actually had

crossed death, so we praise and thank God for giving us a

share in that glory.

There are wonderful meanings in this praise, that’s why

the church had put it at the beginning (First Canticle

Haus).

Pharaoh and his soldiers who had enslaved the children

of Israel is exactly like Satan and his soldiers enslaving

the human beings. As Moses saved the children of Israel,

Jesus Christ also saved us from the slavery of the devil.

Drowning Pharaoh and his soldiers in the sea is like

drowning Satan and his soldiers in Hades through Jesus’

Cross.

􀂙 Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this

song to the Lord and spoke saying: “I will sing to

the Lord for he had triumphed gloriously:

The Lord says “ Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I

will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.” (Psalm

50:15) It was a day of great trouble to the children of

Israel when they came out of the land Egypt and reached

the shore of the Red Sea. Suddenly, they found Pharaoh,

his soldiers and knights behind them. “And when

Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their

eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So

they were afraid, and the children of Israel cried to the

lord. Then they said to Moses,” Because there were no

graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the

wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us

up out of Egypt?” Is this not the word that we told you

in Egypt, saying,’ let us alone that we may serve the

Egyptians”? For it would have been better for us to

serve the Egyptians than we should die in the wilderness.” And Moses said to the people, “Do not be

afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord,

which He will accomplish for you today. For the

Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no

more forever. “The Lord will fight for you, and you

shall hold your peace.” And the Lord said to Moses,

“Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go

forward. “But lift up your rod, and stretch out your

hand over the sea and divide it. And the children of

Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the

sea.”(Exodus 14:10-16)

“Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and

the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind

all that night, and made the sea into dry land, and the

waters were divided. So the children of Israel went into

the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters

were a wall to them on the right hand and on the left.”

(Exodus 14:21-22)

“So the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of

the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the

seashore. Thus Israel saw the great work which the

Lord had done in Egypt; so the people feared the Lord,

and believed the Lord and His servant Moses.” (Exodus

14:30-31)

The glory of Jesus Christ was in His Great wonderful

salvation on the cross, through His death, His mercy was

glorified and He saved Adam and his children. This glory

was hidden from Satan, who came to the cross to take

Jesus’ soul, as he had done with those who had died before and put them in Hades. But the Lord of glory was

glorified through the Power of His Divinity and cast

Satan into Hades, as He did with Pharaoh and his

soldiers. Thus we are saved from Satan our enemy as the

children of Israel were saved from Pharaoh.

􀂙 The horse and its rider He has thrown into the

sea. The Lord is my strength and song and He has

become my salvation.

Through His power, God caste Pharaoh and all his

chariots in the sea, so they drowned and the children of

Israel were saved. Jesus Christ also saved us from our

mental Pharaoh and cast it in Hades. When the disciples

came back from their first mission happily Jesus said to

them. “And He said to them (Luke 10:18) After Lord

Jesus heard the wonderful quick response from the father

“I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.”(John

12:28), He said “Now is the judgment of this world; now

the ruler of this world will be cast out. “And I, if I am

lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to

myself.” (John 12:31-32).

Through Christ “That we should be saved from our

enemies” (Luke 1:71) thus we praise him in Pascha

Week. ‘My Lord Jesus Christ my good Saviour, my

strength and my praise who became my holy salvation’.

He is my God and I will glorify Him, my Fathers God

I will exalt Him.

As the Lord has done this great salvation for them, He is

worthy for glory and exalting His name according to His

holy commandment. “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.”

(Psalm 50:15)

In the New Testament we believe that Jesus is the Great

God, the Saviour of the world, every time we look at the

cross, we glorify Him, though He looked ‘ He is despised

and rejected by men, A man of sorrows and acquainted

with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;

He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. (Isaiah

53:3).

‘He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the

King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross,

and we will believe Him’ (Matthew 27:42)

‘Save Yourself, and come down from the cross!’ (Mark

15:30)

The Lord is a man of war, the Lord is His name.

Pharaoh’s chariots and his army He has cast into the

sea.

Why do we glorify the Lord? Because He is a man of

war. He ended the war between the Israelites and the

Egyptians, with this great victory to the children of Israel.

He ended the war between Israel and the seven nations in

the land of Canaan, also at the time of the Judges “Then

he divided the three hundred men into three companies,

and he put a trumpet into every man’s hand, with empty

pitchers, and torches inside the pitchers. (Judges 7: 16) “After him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who killed

six hundred men of the Philistines with an ox goad; and

he also delivered Israel.” (Judges 3:31)

“And then, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to

meet him, and said to him ‘Come, I will show you the

man whom you seek.’ And when he went into her tent,

there lay Sisera, dead with the peg in his temple.

(Judges 4:22)

“He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his

hand and took it, and killed a thousand men with it.

(Judges 15:15)

Also He ended the war during Hezekiah the king’s reign

“And it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of

the Lord went out, and killed in the camp of the

Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and

when people arose early in the morning, there were the

corpses- all dead.” (2 Kings 19:35. The mighty God is

the Lord, the Almighty, the Pantocrator.

His chosen captains are also drowned in the Red Sea.

They are special strong knights of Pharaoh, who were

famous for their bravery and skills in war, were drowned

in the red sea and couldn’t be saved from God’s hand

“far above all principalities and power might and

dominion, and every name that is named, not only in

this age but also in that which is to come.”(Ephesians

1:21)

􀂙 The depths have covered them, they sank to the

bottom as a stone “Then the waters returned and covered the chariots, the

horsemen, and all the army of Pharaoh that came into

the sea after them. Not so much as one of them

remained.” (Ex. 14:28) They sank in the deep sea

because they were armoured with heavy weapons, thus

their weapons were the reason of their death.

Jesus also, droned our armoured enemies - through His

Cross - in the bottom of Hades.

􀂙 Your right hand O Lord, has become glorious

in power. Your right hand, O Lord, has dashed

the enemy in pieces

The right hand always symbolizes strength, and our

strong Lord destroyed Pharaoh His enemy, who

blasphemed and said, “And Pharaoh said, ‘Who is the

Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do

not know that Lord, nor will I let Israel go’.” (Ex. 5:2)

The word right hand also means the Only Begotten Son,

He is the power of the Father. He defeated Satan and its

soldiers through His Cross. God sent His Son, born of a

woman, He saved His creation from the authority of the

enemy and restored us to the Heavenly Canaan.

􀂙 And in the greatness of Your Excellence, you

have overthrown those who rose up against You.

You sent forth your wrath, it consumed them like

stubble

Stubble cannot resist fire, it consumes so quickly and

becomes ashes in seconds, and the same with God’s

wrath, as soon as, He sent His wrath on the Egyptians, they were destroyed in minutes. Yes, “For our God is a

consuming fire.” (Heb. 12:29) and, “For His anger is

but for a moment, His favour is for life; weeping may

endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.”(Ps.

30:5)

􀀿 And with the blast of Your nostrils the waters

were gathered together, the flood stood upright

like a wall and the depths were congealed on the

heart of the sea

With Your power, you created the waters and gave it its

liquid texture to carry out Your will. Water is an

obedient servant to You: When You walked on it, you

changed its quality as if walking on land. When You

ordered Peter to walk on it, he did. When You rebuked

the sea, it obeyed.

So, no wonder then that the sea was split and the waves

congealed as huge wall, because, “Yet it shall not be so

among you; but whoever desires to become great among

you, let him be your servant.” (Matt. 19:26)

􀂙 The enemy said; I will pursue, I will overtake, I

will divide the spoil, my lust shall be satisfied upon

them, I will draw my sword, and my hand shall

destroy them. You blew with your wind, the sea

covered them, they sank like lead in the mighty

waters

When Pharaoh saw the divided sea, while the children of

Israel crossing, he was encouraged and followed them to

destroy them and take all their possessions, because it was written that the children of Israel, “Now the children

of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, and

they had asked from the Egyptians articles of silver,

articles of gold and clothing. And the Lord had given

the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that

they granted them what they requested. Thus they

plundered the Egyptians.” (Ex. 12:35-36) How

wonderful are Your judgments O Lord! The same reason

which saved the Israelites, destroyed Pharaoh and his

powers, “To the one we are the aroma of death leading

to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to

life. And who is sufficient for these things?” (2 Cor.

2:16) Glory be to You O Lord!

“With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful;

with a blameless man You will show Yourself

blameless; with the pure You will show Yourself pure;

and with the devious You will show Yourself shrewd.

For You will save the humble people, but will bring

down haughty looks.” (Ps. 18:25-27), also “The Lord

watches over the strangers; He relives the fatherless,

and widow; but the way of the wicked He turns upside

down.” (Ps. 146:9) “Then the waters returned and

covered the chariots, the horsemen, and all the army of

Pharaoh that came into the sea after them. Not so

much as one of them remained.” (Ex. 14:28)

So it was, when Satan saw the Lord of glory, incarnated

then crucified, as a weak person, saying on the cross,

“My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” it

thought that Jesus was just a human being and wanted to

capture His Soul when it departs His Body. But, when

Jesus died His divinity never departed His Humanity for a single instance or a twinkle of an eye, thus He captured

Satan and tied it up, thus we were released from its

bondage, and became captives of Jesus’ sacrificing love,

“Now for the third time I am ready to come to you. And

I will not be burdensome to you; for I do not seek yours,

but you. For the children ought not to lay up of the

parents, but the parents of the children.” (2 Cor. 12:14)

􀂙 Who is like You O Lord among the gods? Who

is like You glorified in His saints, amazing in

glory, performing wonders?

Who is like You among the gods O Lord, they are all

false gods made by the Gentiles through the devil’s

deceit to deprive them form your way. But You are a

zealous strong God, “For indeed, those who are far

from You shall perish; You have destroyed all those

who desert You for harlotry.” (Ps. 73:27), “Let all be

put to shame who serve carved images, who boast of

idols, worship Him, all you gods.” (Ps. 97:7), “The idols

of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men’s

hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak; eyes

that have, but they do not see; they have ears but they

do not hear; nor is there any breath in their mouths.

Those who make them are like them; so is everyone

who trusts in them.” (Ps. 135:15-18)

Some people worship things that You created like the

sun, moon, stars, rivers, animals…..

You are glorified in all Your saints, You performed

miracles and wonders through them, they witnessed for

you during the times of spiritual ignorance. Crossing the Red Sea and Jordan River are considered one of the great

miracles which You performed Lord for those who fear

Your name. In every age, “And these signs will follow

those who believe; In My name they will cast out

demons; they will speak with new tongues;” (Mark

16:17), “And they went out and preached everywhere,

the Lord working with them and confirming the word

through the accompanying signs. Amen.” (Mark 16:20)

􀂙 You stretched out Your right hand, the earth

swallowed them. You in Your mercy had fed

froth the people whom You have redeemed. You

have guided them, in Your strength, to Your Holy

habitation

O Lord, You drowned Pharaoh and all his soldiers, but

Your people, whom You loved and had chosen; “When

Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called

My son.” (Hosea 11:1), “For the Lord has chosen

Jacob for himself, Israel for his special treasure”

(Ps.135: 4), “Your garments did not wear out on you,

nor did your foot swell these forty years.” (Deut. 8:4)

You guided them to Canaan, the place of Your Holy

habitation, which You have sworn to their fathers to give

it to them and their descendants.

Jesus Christ also redeemed Adam and His children after

His death on the Cross, but the living, He gave them His

Holy Spirit through the Baptism and Mayroun, as a fixed

seal by which they can face Satan’s fights and conquer it.

After His Ascension, He guided us to His kingdom

through His disciples and the descent of the Holy Spirit.

They preached and wrote the Gospels and Epistles in order to show us the way to Christ and his kingdom. O

Lord! You also gave us the means of salvation in the

Church’s mysteries, gaining power and remission of our

sins.

􀂙 The people will hear and be afraid, sorrow will

take hold of the inhabitants of Palestine

“So it was, when all the kings of the Amorites who were

on the west side of the Jordan, and all the kings of the

Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that the Lord

had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before the

children of Israel until we had crossed over, that their

heart melted and there was no spirit in them any longer

because of the children of Israel.” (Josh. 5:1) So, they

started planning to prevent the children of Israel from

entering into the Promised Land. The same with Satan,

when it saw that the human beings are being lifted to

Paradise it was angry and tried to stop them, by tempting

them to sin and to be lazy in the prayers and worship, so

that they might not reach the level which it lost because

of its pride.

􀂙 Then the dukes of Edom will be amazed, the

mighty men of Moab, trembling will take hold of

them

Moses sent a sensible message to the king of Edom to let

them pass through his lands, “Now Moses sent

messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom. ‘Thus

says your brother Israel; ‘You know all the hardship

that has befallen us, how our fathers went down to

Egypt, and we dwelt in Egypt a long time, and the Egyptians afflicted us and our fathers. When we cried

out to the Lord, He heard our voice an sent the Angel

and brought us up out of Egypt; now here we are in

Kadesh, a city on the edge of your border. Please let us

pass through your country. We will not pass through

fields or vineyards, nor will we drink water from wells;

we will go along the King’s Highway; we will not turn

aside to the right hand or to the left until we have

passed through your territory.’ Then Edom said to

him, ‘You shall not pass through my land, lest I come

out against you with the sword.” (Num. 20: 14-18), but

it is written, “Then he said, ‘You shall not pass

through,’ So Edom came out against them with many

men and with a strong hand.” (Num. 20:20) .

The same, when the Apostles preached the word of God,

their preaching returned people to worshipping the true

God and the idols were destroyed.

􀂙 All the inhabitants of Canaan will melt away,

fear and dread will fall on them

“So Joshua said to the children of Israel, ‘Come here,

and hear the words of the Lord your God’. And Joshua

said, ‘By this you shall know that the living God is

among you, and that He will without fail drive out from

before you the Canaanites and the Hittites and the

Hivites and the Perizzites and the Girgashites and the

Amorites and the Jesusites’.” (Josh. 3:9-10) “And it

came to pass when all the kings who were on this side

of the Jordan in the hills and in the lowland and in all

the coasts of the Great Sea toward Lebanon – The Hitite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the

Hivite, and the Jebusite – heard about it.” (Josh. 9:1)

Israel won all these battles because God was with them,

“And they did not drive out the Canaanites who dwelt in

Gezer; but the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites

to this day and have become forced laborers.” (Josh.

16:10 thus the curse of Noah their father was fulfilled,

“Then he said: ‘Cursed be Canaan; a servant of

servants he shall be to his brethren’.” (Gen. 9:25)

􀂙 By the greatness of Your arm they will be as

still as stone, till Your people pass over O Lord,

till Your people pass over whom You have

purchased

With Your Mighty Power, O Lord, make these nations

like stone, in order to fulfill your promise and Your

people would reach the promised land. Truly, the Lord

has promised to make these nations their food, because

His Power is sustaining the children of Israel. Moses

repeats, ‘Till Your people pass over” twice, to assure that

they will reach the Promised Land. So, the honest pastor

has to care about the salvation of his congregation

guiding them to the Kingdom of Heaven.

“By the greatness of Your arm” means through Your

Holy Spirit dwelling in Your people through Baptism

dread the devils and make them still like stone, till Your

people – whom You purchased with Your Precious

Blood might reach the Paradise. 􀂙 You will bring them in and plant them in the

mountain of Your inheritance, in the place, O

Lord, which You have made for You to dwell in

Moses repeats his pleading fervently, asking for Israel to

enter the Promised Land and plant in Zion mountain

fruitful fruits of prayer, worship and praises, pleasing

God’s heart. Thus, in the New Testament, we look at the

new city, “for he waited for the city which has

foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” (Heb.

11:10)

􀂙 In Your Sanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands

have established, the Lord shall reign forever and

ever

O Lord, You had prepared this sanctuary for us long ago,

when You said to Abraham; “And the Lord said to

Abram, after Lot had separated from him: ‘Lift your

eyes now and look from the place where you arenorthward,

southward, eastward and westward; for all

the land which you see I give to you and your

descendents forever’” (Gen. 13:14-15). We also ask

Christ to reign over our hearts, “Thy Kingdom Come”,

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people

He has chosen as His own inheritance.” (Ps. 33:12)

􀂙 For the horses of Pharaoh went with his

chariots and his horsemen into the sea. And the

Lord brought back the waters to the sea upon

them but the children of Israel went on dry land in

the mist of the sea God is glorified at all times. He saved Israel, and was

glorified, and He drowned Pharaoh and his soldiers and

was also glorified (in everything You are blessed and

glorified). It also means that the believers living amidst

the world, with the power of the Holy Spirit, can walk

and live on earth guarded by God and His angels, while

their enemies, the devils, drown in the Hades prepared

for them since even the beginning of the world.

􀂙 And Miriam the Prophetess, the sister of

Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the

women went out after her with timbrels and with

praises

The Prophetess, leading the Israelite women, resembles

St. Mary, the Mother of God, the first believer and

Christians who praised.

􀂙 And Miriam answered them saying, ‘Sing to the

Lord for He has triumphed gloriously. The horse

and its rider, He has thrown into the sea. Let us

sing to the Lord for He has triumphed gloriously

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