Day 1 (Monday)
Exodus 2:11-25
Welcome to Week 12. Last week we saw the birth of Moses, and how his mother hid him in the rushes in the river, and how Pharaoh’s daughter found him and adopted him. This week we will see him all grown up. Let’s see what he does.
11 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and saw their forced labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his kinsfolk. 12 He looked this way and that, and seeing no one he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 When he went out the next day, he saw two Hebrews fighting; and he said to the one who was in the wrong, “Why do you strike your fellow Hebrew?” 14 He answered, “Who made you a ruler and judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” 15 When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses.
But Moses fled from Pharaoh. He settled in the land of Midian, and sat down by a well. 16 The priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came to draw water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17 But some shepherds came and drove them away. Moses got up and came to their defense and watered their flock. 18 When they returned to their father Reuel, he said, “How is it that you have come back so soon today?” 19 They said, “An Egyptian helped us against the shepherds; he even drew water for us and watered the flock.” 20 He said to his daughters, “Where is he? Why did you leave the man? Invite him to break bread.” 21 Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah in marriage. 22 She bore a son, and he named him Gershom; for he said, “I have been an alien residing in a foreign land.”
23 After a long time the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned under their slavery, and cried out. Out of the slavery their cry for help rose up to God. 24 God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 25 God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.
Discussion questions:
1) Do you think it was a good thing that Moses did at the beginning of the story? Or a bad thing? (It’s interesting that the text doesn’t say. However, we will see just a few chapters later, when God gives Moses the Ten Commandments, that “You shall not kill” is one of the commandments. And Moses suffers the consequences of his actions, in losing his place in Pharaoh’s house and having to flee into the desert. So I think that it was complicated, because Moses was trying to save the slave who was being beaten, but ended up doing even greater violence himself, so whatever good he managed to do was tainted by the violence he did.)
2) What happened when Moses tried to stop the two Hebrews from fighting? (They asked him who had made him the boss of them, and whether he planned to kill them like he killed the Egyptian.)
3) What did Moses do when he realized that he had been seen killing the Egyptian? Where did he go? (He ran away from Egypt, and went to the land of Midian)
4) What happened to him there? (He helped seven sisters water their flock, and ended up marrying one of the sisters and living as a shepherd with their father and his family. This may be a good time to point out the importance of doing what is right, even in strange circumstances. Moses was a stranger in a strange land, but he still acted to help the sisters care for their flocks, when stronger shepherds were treating them poorly. So he defended the weak. Likewise we can see the importance of hospitality; the father of these seven sisters scolded them for not bringing the man that had helped them home, and made a point to give him food, both because he had helped them, and because he was a stranger and a traveler, and caring for them was, and is, an important thing for righteous people to do.)
5) What were the names of Moses’ wife and child, and what did the name of his son mean? (His wife was Zipporah, and his son was named Gershom, which means “a stranger there,” because he was a foreigner among his wife’s people).
6) What happened at the end of today’s reading? (It says that the Pharaoh died, and things got worse for the children of Israel, and they prayed to God for help, and God remembered them and the covenant He had made with Abraham. So we see that it was the end of the 400 years that God had told Abraham about, and it was time for Abraham’s descendants to leave Egypt. This means that in our next reading, we are going to see God start to take action to save His people.)
Day 2 (Wednesday)
St. John Chrysostom on Suffering
Note to parents – this is a heavy topic, and St. John is not always the easiest person to follow. However, the question of why bad things happen to good people is a question that all of us ask, and many children ask it quite young. St. John gives a fearless answer that calls us to consider what it really means to follow Christ – I urge you to at the least discuss this passage together yourselves, and with your older children. I also urge you to not be afraid to talk about it with the younger children, or at least in front of them. If nothing else, it is important for them, and for all of us, to be reminded that, for Christian people, suffering is not something by which we should be surprised, and very often, it is in suffering, rather than the good times, that we see God at work in our lives.
We talked last week about St. John Chrysostom and his life, exile, and death, and this week we see Moses going into exile from Egypt. Both of these are saints of the Church, and yet we see them suffering a great deal. Sometimes people have asked why it is that God allows His saints, those who serve Him best, to suffer. It’s an important question for us, not least because we ourselves experience suffering throughout our lives. Now there are two possible answers. Sometimes God allows us to suffer the consequences of our wrong actions, in order to call us back to repentance after we have sinned. This seems to be what happens to Moses after he kills the Egyptian, as we saw on Monday. Sometimes, though, we see righteous people suffer, even when they have done nothing wrong, as we saw with St. John Chrysostom. Why God allows this to happen is a difficult question, but St. John actually talks about it in one of his sermons, so let’s see what he says about it!
“For we often hear the question asked of why God allows humble and righteous people to suffer, and some have found fault with the Saints, because they experienced sickness and disease, or poverty, hunger, prison, torments, & discomfort, or were despised by others, or suffered every other evil thing that comes in the present life. (Some have said that they must have been evil if God punished them with such suffering, or that God is not just if He rewards them with suffering in exchange for their righteous deeds). So we need to give a solution to the problem, an answer to those who are inclined to find fault.
There are many answers that may be given, but they can be reduced to two. First, the Lord allows the Saints to suffer for their own profit and benefit. Second, He allows them to suffer for our benefit, and for that of all who see and hear of them.
1) When we say that God allows the Saints to suffer for their own good, it is specifically because suffering is a remedy for pride. And pride is a danger for the Saints, for nothing is so likely to feed pride as a life that is full of good works, and a soul that lives in confidence that it has done everything it should do. In order that His saints might escape from pride, then, God allows temptations and tribulations to afflict them; for these are have a great power to shrink human pride, and to teach us to be moderate and humble in all things.
Still more, when the saints suffer, and their own pride falls, God’s own power is revealed in them instead. He triumphs, and overcomes, and advances the preaching of the Word of God through people who are weak, and imprisoned, and in many troubles.
We see throughout the Scriptures, in fact, that suffering is profitable to the saints, to help them to exercise moderation and lowliness, and to keep them from being puffed up by their miracles and good works; and it is for this profit that God permits them to suffer.. For examples, we can hear the same thing affirmed by both David the prophet and Paul the apostle. For David says, “It is good for me, Lord, that I have been in trouble, that I might learn thy statutes” (Psalms 119:71), and Paul says, “I was caught up into the third heaven, and…and lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me with persecutions and afflictions, that I might not be too much exalted” (2 Corinthians 12).
2) Besides the benefits of suffering for the Saints themselves, God allows them to suffer for the sake of those who see and hear about them, so that we may have them for an example.
Their suffering is a safeguard to make sure that no one thinks that they are superhuman, or mistakes them to be gods and not men. For if they were more than human, than it would be impossible for the rest of us to imitate their righteousness, and they would be irrelevant to us. But their suffering shows them to be human beings, as we are, and therefore it is possible for us to imitate their example.
Their suffering also shows us what it means to trust God, for in it we see that they do not serve God to earn a reward. Instead, we see the depth of their trust in God when they serve Him even when they are suffering many evil things.
Their example then gives comfort to everyone who encounters troubles in life. When we remember that the Saints suffered like we do, and even more than we do, we come to understand that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, and this both inspires us to imitate them, and reminds us that we are not alone in our suffering.
All of this helps us to understand the true nature of our life. We are often tempted to think that those who enjoy ease and pleasure in this life, even though they are evil, are blessed, and that we who struggle to follow Christ, and suffer many troubles and struggles, are cursed. But when we look at the example of the saints, who suffered and were crowned with glory by God, we learn what it truly means to be happy (that is, to be united with the Lord), and what it truly means to be miserable (to be distant from Him).”
(Adapted from Homily 1, Concerning the Statues, given in Antioch)
Discussion questions:
1) What is the problem that St. John is talking about? (Why it is that God allows good people to suffer, and especially why we see the saints suffer so much when we read their lives).
2) What does St. John say are the basic reasons that God allows the Saints to suffer? (First, for their own sake, and second for the sake of those who see or hear about the Saints, that is to say, for our sake).
3) How does suffering help the Saints? (It keeps them from becoming proud, and helps them to see God’s power at work in them.)
4) How does the suffering of the Saints help us? (It helps us to understand that they aren’t any different from us, and encourages us to imitate their example, even when we experience troubles and have problems. More than that, their suffering reminds us that we are not alone when we suffer, but that we are surrounded by a great crowd of witnesses, who pray for us and hope in the Lord along with us).
5) Who does St. John say is most blessed in life? Is it the people who are rich and comfortable and never have any problems? Or is it the people who suffer and have many problems? Why does he say that this is so? (He says the people who suffer, but are with the Lord are the ones who are truly happy, because they are not alone, but are always with the Lord, and with all the Saints).
Day 3 (Friday)
Luke 6:1-16
Last time, we saw the Pharisees start to criticize Jesus and His disciples because they weren’t fasting. This week, they will get even more angry at Him when He doesn’t act how they think He should act on the Sabbath Day. Let’s see what happens!
6 One sabbath while Jesus was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked some heads of grain, rubbed them in their hands, and ate them. 2 But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?” 3 Jesus answered, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and gave some to his companions?” 5 Then he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.”
6 On another sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered. 7 The scribes and the Pharisees watched him to see whether he would cure on the sabbath, so that they might find an accusation against him. 8 Even though he knew what they were thinking, he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” He got up and stood there. 9 Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to destroy it?” 10 After looking around at all of them, he said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was restored. 11 But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.
12 Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God. 13 And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles: 14 Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, and James, and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, 15 and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was called the Zealot, 16 and Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
Discussion Questions
1) Where are the Pharisees angry at Jesus about in this reading? (They are angry because Jesus isn’t observing the Sabbath day in the way that they think He should).
2) What was the Sabbath day, anyway? (The Sabbath day was, and is, the seventh day of each week. In our week, it’s Saturday, which is still called Σαββατο in Greek. The Jews rested from work on the Sabbath Day, because God had rested on the seventh day of the week after He created everything.)
3) What two things had Jesus and His disciples done that the Pharisees were unhappy about? (His disciples had picked some heads of grain to eat while they were walking through a field, and Jesus had healed a man’s hand.)
4) What was Jesus’ question to them about the Sabbath? (He asked them what the Sabbath was for: to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it. He made the point that rest is a good thing, but starving yourself, or refusing to help people, are not good things, and that they were taking their rules too far. He also claimed to have authority over the Sabbath, when He said that the Son of Man was the lord of the Sabbath.)
5) What did Jesus do at the end of the reading? (He picked twelve special disciples from those who were following Him Note, disciple is just a fancy word for a student, someone who is learning from a teacher.)
6) How many disciples did Jesus pick? (Twelve – this is a good time to point out that there had also been twelve tribes of Israel, because Jacob/Israel had twelve sons. So Jesus is re-building the chosen people, since so many of the twelve tribes had abandoned the Covenant over the centuries since Moses).
7) How many of the Apostles do you recognize? What stories do you remember about them? (This is an open question, a chance to see what all of us remember about these pillars of the Church…and the one who betrayed his calling.)