Day 1 (Monday)
God’s Covenant with Abram, then skip to Israel in Egypt
Last time, we saw the story of Cain and Abel, and after Abel’s murder, we followed the line of Cain’s descendants as things went from bad to worse. Meanwhile, Adam and Eve died, and before long, of all their descendants, only Noah and his family remained righteous, so God sent a great flood to cleanse the earth and start again, saving Noah in the Ark. After the Flood, Noah’s descendants rejected God once again, so He called a man named Abram to leave his home city of Ur (at the northern end of the Persian Gulf) and to go to the Promised Land. God told him that he would be the father of many nations. A lot happened to Abram, and he was far from perfect, but he always repented, and continued to trust God and His promises. We find him here after he won a great victory against his enemies, but he still had no children, and he is starting to wonder how God will make him a father of many nations without any children of his own.
Genesis 15:1-20
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 2 But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.” 4 But the word of the Lord came to him, “This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.” 5 He brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” 6 And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.
7 Then he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.” 8 But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” 9 He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. 11 And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him. 13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know this for certain, that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years; 14 but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 As for yourself, you shall go to your ancestors in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. 16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, 19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
Reading 5 – 473 words
So that is God’s promise to Abram, when he asked for reassurance – and as God said, Abraham’s grandson Jacob and his family went to Egypt. We will now read the beginning of the book of Exodus and see the beginning of the fulfillment of God’s promise.
Exodus 1:1-22
“1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, 3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, 4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. 5 The total number of people born to Jacob was seventy. Joseph was already in Egypt. 6 Then Joseph died, and all his brothers, and that whole generation. 7 But the Israelites were fruitful and prolific; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.
8 Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. 10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” 11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. 13 The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, 14 and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.
15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, 16 “When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live.” 17 But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. 18 So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?” 19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” 20 So God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and became very strong. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. 22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live.”
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (The Leader should point out that these readings are effectively advancing us in the plot, showing us that we are in the same story. Adam and Eve’s hope from the Fall that the seed of the woman would undo the curse was disappointed in her son Cain, who instead brought murder into the world, and through his line brought such evil upon the world that the Lord undid the creation in the Flood. When afterward humanity turns once again to evil, however, God calls a childless descendant of Noah, Abram, to leave the world and to entrust himself and his hope of progeny to God’s promise, and in this reading God makes that promise firm, by means of the contractual ritual of the time, by passing between the divided halves of the animals. He also tells him what would have seemed impossible to Abram, that not only would he have descendants, but that there would be enough of them for them to be enslaved in Egypt…and that God would deliver them from there. And then, of course, we skip forward to the beginning of the book of Exodus and see how this promise of great progeny has been fulfilled, and see these two midwives themselves exhibiting the same faith as Abraham. In the next several weeks, we will see more of the descendants of Abraham in Egypt, as God comes to them and delivers them.)
2) Where do we see Christ in this text; what is He saying or doing here?
3) Do we see ourselves and the Church in this text; what does it say about us?
4) What do you find difficult about this reading? Is there anything confusing about it, or anything that you dislike? (This is an open question, as always. )
5) Does this reading make you think that you need to change anything in your life?
Day 2 (Wednesday)
Initial Prayers of the Liturgy (Antiphons, Entrance & Trisagion)
These five prayers accompany the Great Litany, the Small Litanies, the Entrance, and the singing of the Trisagion Hymn, which together comprise the introductory portion of the Divine Liturgy, the period in which the Faithful enter the Temple of God and begin our worship. It is worth reflecting on how these prayers address the Lord, as they provide for us a template of how we ought to enter into His presence.
PRAYER OF THE FIRST ANTIPHON
Lord, our God, whose power is beyond compare, and glory is beyond understanding; whose mercy is boundless, and love for us is ineffable: look upon us and upon this holy house in Your compassion. Grant to us and to those who pray with us Your abundant mercy. For to You belong all glory, honor, and worship to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and forever and to the ages of ages.
PRAYER OF THE SECOND ANTIPHON
Lord our God, save Your people and bless Your inheritance; protect the whole body of Your Church; sanctify those who love the beauty of Your house; glorify them in return by Your divine power; and do not forsake us who hope in You. For Yours is the dominion, the kingdom, the power, and the glory of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and forever and to the ages of ages. Amen.
PRAYER OF THE THIRD ANTIPHON
Lord, You have given us grace to offer these common prayers with one heart. You have promised to grant the requests of two or three gathered in Your name. Fulfill now the petitions of Your servants for our benefit, giving us the knowledge of Your truth in this world, and granting us eternal life in the world to come. For You are a good and loving God, and to You we give glory, to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and forever and to the ages of ages. Amen.
PRAYER OF THE ENTRANCE OF THE HOLY GOSPEL
Master and Lord our God, You have established in heaven the orders and hosts of angels and archangels to minister to Your glory. Grant that the holy angels may enter with us that together we may serve and glorify Your goodness. For to You belong all glory, honor, and worship to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and forever and to the ages of ages. Amen.
PRAYER OF THE TRISAGION HYMN
Holy God, You dwell among Your saints. You are praised by the Seraphim with the thrice holy hymn and glorified by the Cherubim and worshiped by all the heavenly powers. You have brought all things out of nothing into being. You have created man and woman in Your image and likeness and adorned them with all the gifts of Your grace. You give wisdom and understanding to the supplicant and do not overlook the sinner but have established repentance as the way of salvation. You have enabled us, Your lowly and unworthy servants, to stand at this hour before the glory of Your holy altar and to offer to You due worship and praise. Master, accept the thrice holy hymn also from the lips of us sinners and visit us in Your goodness. Forgive our voluntary and involuntary transgressions, sanctify our souls and bodies, and grant that we may worship and serve You in holiness all the days of our lives, by the intercessions of the holy Theotokos and of all the saints who have pleased You throughout the ages.
For You are holy, our God, and to You we give glory, to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and forever, and unto the ages of ages.
It can be helpful to re-state this prayer in your own words, to make sure we understand what we are saying to God. Here is my re-stated, simpler version of this prayer:
“God, You are with Your people, and are praised by all the angels with the thrice holy hymn. You made everything out of nothing, and created human beings in your image and likeness, and gave them good gifts. You give wisdom to those who ask you for it, and you listen to sinners, and gave them a way to be saved, through repentance. We are low and sinful people, but you allow us to stand before you now and worship You at this Altar. We sing this hymn to glorify you; accept it from us, and visit us in Your goodness. Forgive all our sins, make us holy in body and soul, and as all the saints pray to You for us, enable us to serve you all our lives, because You are holy, and we send up glory to You, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, from now until eternity.”
Please feel free to try this yourselves. Then see if you can answer these questions. Try paying attention to some of the other prayers of the Church, and see whether they follow the same pattern.
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (The Leader should point out how these prayers, and especially the Prayer at the Trisagion Hymn, provide us with a template for how to pray. First we confess Who God is – in this prayer, we remember that He is holy and that He made everything, including us. Then we confess who we are – we are people that God has made, who are here to worship Him and ask Him for mercy and strength and everything that is truly good. Then we actually ask him for these good things, to accept us and to be with us, to forgive us, to make us holy, and to allow us to be with Him and worship Him always. Finally, we confess once more Who God is, and giving Him glory. It can be valuable to study the prayers of the Church and even to re-state their meaning in our own words, as an aid to praying these prayers with understanding and purpose. In general, these prayers show us that, when we pray to the Lord, we need to look toward God, we need to be ourselves, and in that place of honesty and true confession, we ask God to be with us, even though we aren’t worthy to be with Him, and we give Him glory and worship, because that is the only thing that it makes sense to do when we see God for Who He is, and ourselves for who we are).
2) Where do we see Christ in this text; what is He saying or doing here?
3) Do we see ourselves and the Church in this text; what does it say about us?
4) What do you find difficult about this reading? Is there anything confusing about it, or anything that you dislike? (This is an open question, as always. )
5) Does this reading make you think that you need to change anything in your life?
Day 3 (Friday)
The Boy Jesus in the Temple; John’s Ministry Begins
Last time we saw the Scriptural account of the two feasts of the infancy of our Lord Jesus Christ, following upon His birth. These, of course, were His Circumcision, celebrated January 1st, and His Meeting with Symeon and Anna in the Temple at His presentation according to the Law of Moses, celebrated February 2nd. This time, we will moe forward in time and see the Lord at the age of 12, as Mary and Joseph the Betrothed travel to Jerusalem for the Passover and bring Jesus with them.
The Boy Jesus in the Temple
41 Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. 42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom; 43 and when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, 44 but supposing him to be in the company they went a day’s journey, and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintances; 45 and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking him. 46 After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions; 47 and all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.
48 And when they saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been looking for you anxiously.” 49 And he said to them, “How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” 50 And they did not understand the saying which he spoke to them. 51 And he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart.
52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man.
The Proclamation of John the Baptist
3 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tibe′ri-us Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Iturae′a and Trachoni′tis, and Lysa′ni-as tetrarch of Abile′ne, 2 in the high-priesthood of Annas and Ca′iaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechari′ah in the wilderness; 3 and he went into all the region about the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
5 Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be brought low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways shall be made smooth;
6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”
7 He said therefore to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruits that befit repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 9 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
Reading 6
512 words
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (The Leader should point out two things: first, that when Jesus is teaching in the Temple, He points to the Father and begins the revelation of the Trinity to those who are hearing Him. This is important not least because it is often suggested that Jesus didn’t know who He was, that somehow He was learning His identity as He grew. It is therefore important that we note that the Orthodox Church affirms that the Lord was always the co-eternal Son of God, and that He always knew exactly Who He is, even from the moment of His conception. This is the great mystery of the Incarnation. Second, we should note that this story, once again, is conveyed to St. Luke by the Mother of God herself, as is indicated to us by the statement that “she kept all these things in her heart,” which St. Luke could not know unless she had told him so. Additionally, we should note that, as St. John begins to preach, he is explicit that he is preparing the of the Lord, warning that the opportunity for repentance and faithfulness for God’s people is present, and that judgment for those who do not bear fruit is coming. God is giving notice by His prophet that time is running out for those who are faithless in this time; they are being warned and called to repentance.)
2) Where do we see Christ in this text; what is He saying or doing here?
3) Do we see ourselves and the Church in this text; what does it say about us?
4) What do you find difficult about this reading? Is there anything confusing about it, or anything that you dislike? (This is an open question, as always. )
5) Does this reading make you think that you need to change anything in your life?
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