Day 1 (Monday)
Exodus 4:1-23, 27-31
Last time, Moses saw the Burning Bush, and went to see why it wasn’t burning up. He encountered the Angel of the Lord, the 2nd Person of the Holy Trinity, there, and when he asked what His name was, God told him that His name was Yahweh, He Who Is, Ὁ Ὤν, and told him to tell the children of Israel in Egypt that He Who Is, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, had sent him, Moses, to lead them out of slavery. Let’s see what happens next!
Then Moses answered, “But suppose they do not believe me or listen to me, but say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’” 2 The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” 3 And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw the staff on the ground, and it became a snake; and Moses drew back from it. 4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Reach out your hand, and seize it by the tail”—so he reached out his hand and grasped it, and it became a staff in his hand— 5 “so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”
6 Again, the Lord said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” He put his hand into his cloak; and when he took it out, his hand was leprous, as white as snow. 7 Then God said, “Put your hand back into your cloak”—so he put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored like the rest of his body— 8 “If they will not believe you or heed the first sign, they may believe the second sign. 9 If they will not believe even these two signs or heed you, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground; and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.”
10 But Moses said to the Lord, “O my Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor even now that you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” 11 Then the Lord said to him, “Who gives speech to mortals? Who makes them mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to speak.” 13 But he said, “O my Lord, please send someone else.” 14 Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and he said, “What of your brother Aaron the Levite? I know that he can speak fluently; even now he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you his heart will be glad. 15 You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth; and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and will teach you what you shall do. 16 He indeed shall speak for you to the people; he shall serve as a mouth for you, and you shall serve as God for him. 17 Take in your hand this staff, with which you shall perform the signs.”
18 Moses went back to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, “Please let me go back to my kindred in Egypt and see whether they are still living.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.” 19 The Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt; for all those who were seeking your life are dead.” 20 So Moses took his wife and his sons, put them on a donkey, and went back to the land of Egypt; and Moses carried the staff of God in his hand.
21 And the Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders that I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go. 22 Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord: Israel is my firstborn son. 23 I said to you, “Let my son go that he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go; now I will kill your firstborn son.’”
27 The Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he went; and he met him at the mountain of God and kissed him. 28 Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord with which he had sent him, and all the signs with which he had charged him. 29 Then Moses and Aaron went and assembled all the elders of the Israelites. 30 Aaron spoke all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses, and performed the signs in the sight of the people. 31 The people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had given heed to the Israelites and that he had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.
Discussion questions:
1) What was Moses worried about? What signs did God give him to do? (He was worried that the children of Israel wouldn’t believe that God had sent him, so God gave him three miracles for proof. He was first to cast his staff onto the ground, and it would become a snake, then he was to put his hand inside his robe, and it would be leprous when he took it out, and would become whole again after he put it back inside his robe, and finally he was to pour some water on the ground, and it would become blood.)
2) What was Moses’ next excuse? (He said that he wasn’t any good at talking).
3) What did God say to that? (He reminded Moses that He was the one who gave speech to human beings, and promised that He would teach Moses what to say. When Moses still complained, God told him to bring his brother Aaron with him, and Aaron would speak for him.
4) When Moses went back to Pharaoh, what did God tell him to say to him? (He told him to tell Pharaoh that Israel was God’s firstborn son, and that if Pharaoh didn’t release the children of Israel, God would kill Pharaoh’s firstborn son.
5) What do you think of all the excuses that Moses made? Why do you think he didn’t want to do what God told him to do? (This is an open question – good for conversation).
Day 2 (Wednesday)
First Prayer of Chrysostom’s Anaphora
We looked last week at how we confess that Jesus Christ is the Angel of the Lord from the Old Testament, the 2nd Person of the Trinity, Yahweh Himself, Who spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, and how we affirm this point explicitly in the Dismissal prayers of every Vespers and Orthros. Similar confessions and reflections are present throughout the prayers of the Church. We can see St. John Chrysostom unpacking what it means that God is the One Who Is, Yahweh, in the first prayer of the Anaphora in the Divine Liturgy. This prayer comes right after the Creed.
It is proper and right to sing to You, bless You, praise You, thank You and worship You in all places of Your dominion; for You are God ineffable, beyond comprehension, invisible, beyond understanding, existing forever and always the same (ἀεὶ ὤν, ὡσαύτως ὤν); You and Your only begotten Son and Your Holy Spirit. You brought us into being out of nothing, and when we fell, You raised us up again. You did not cease doing everything until You led us to heaven and granted us Your kingdom to come. For all these things we thank You and Your only begotten Son and Your Holy Spirit; for all things that we know and do not know, for blessings seen and unseen that have been bestowed upon us. We also thank You for this liturgy which You are pleased to accept from our hands, even though You are surrounded by thousands of Archangels and tens of thousands of Angels, by the Cherubim and Seraphim, six-winged, many-eyed, soaring with their wings,
Singing the victory hymn, proclaiming, crying out, and saying:
Holy, holy, holy, Lord Sabaoth, heaven and earth are filled with Your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna to God in the highest.
Discussion questions:
1) Why does the prayer say it is good and right for us to praise and worship God? (Because He is great and high and awesome, above and beyond existence and time and understanding.)
2) What specifically does it say about the Name of God, Yahweh, Ὁ Ὤν (in the section in bold)? (It uses the same word in Greek, and adds that God, being the One Who Is, is the One Who “always is/exists forever” and Who “Is always the same.” So it says that God’s Being, His essence, is eternal and unchanging).
3) So do we praise and thank and worship God just because He is eternal and unchanging? Or is because of something else? (The prayer goes on to talk about how God, the One Who Is, brought us into being out of nothing, and when we fell, He raised us up again, and does not stop acting and working to save us until He brings us safely into the Kingdom to come. So we thank Him and praise Him and worship Him because, although He is perfect and eternal and infinite, and needs nothing at all from us…nonetheless He loves us.)
4) Who worships God together with us? (The prayer talks about how all the angels are worshipping God, and thanks God for accepting our prayer along with the prayer and worship of the angelic powers. And then we even sing the hymn of the angels along with them, as it is recorded in the book of Revelation.)
5) Do you noticed that we call God “The Lord of Sabaoth” here? Do you think this “Lord” is Yahweh? Or does it just mean Lord? (The name “Yahweh-Sabaoth” appears throughout the Hebrew Old Testament, and means that God is God of gods, He-Who-Is among all the heavenly hosts. We can think, as well, of how the Bible talks about The Angel of the Lord, as we see the Son of God at the Burning Bush, or the Captain of the Heavenly Hosts that Joshua meets before Israel crosses the Jordan River.)
Day 3 (Friday)
Luke 6:37-49
Last time we saw Jesus begin the Sermon on the Mount. He talked about how we should treat other people, and what it really means to be blessed. He continues in that way this week.
37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; 38 give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”
39 He also told them a parable: “Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit? 40 A disciple is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully qualified will be like the teacher. 41 Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s[f] eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? 42 Or how can you say to your neighbor,[g] ‘Friend,[h] let me take out the speck in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s[i] eye.
A Tree and Its Fruit
43 “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; 44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. 45 The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.
The Two Foundations
46 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you? 47 I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them. 48 That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when a flood arose, the river burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built.[j] 49 But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, immediately it fell, and great was the ruin of that house.”
Discussion Questions
1) What is the basic point of what Jesus says in the first paragraph here? (He says that we will be treated in the way that we have treated other people; he warns against judging and condemning others, and urges us to forgive and to be generous).
2) What do you think Jesus is saying when he talks about the log and the speck in the eye, and the blind leading the blind? (This is a good chance for a conversation – but the basic point is that we shouldn’t try to fix other people…we should address our own failings and sins before we try to tell other people what’s wrong with them. These are good words to live by…almost everything that Christians do wrong in dealing with those around them comes back somehow to a failure to follow this instruction.)
3) Why does Jesus compare us to trees? (He is saying that, if you want to know whether a tree is good or not, you should look at its fruit, and in the same way, if we want to know whether we are doing well or not, we should look at the fruit of our lives. We can’t say that we’re doing just fine if the fruit of our lives is anger, gossip, and trouble.)
4) What do you think the parable of the house in the flood means? (This is again an opportunity for conversation. The basic point is that listening to God isn’t enough – we have to act on what He says to us.)