Day 1 (Monday)
Joshua 9 (The Gibeonites Save Themselves by Trickery)
Last time we saw the people of God attack and destroy the city of Ai, and then proceed to renew the covenant, building an altar to Yahweh and reading the Law aloud, including both the blessings that God had promised to them if they were faithful, and the curses that He promised if they were unfaithful. This time, we will see what happens next, and how they once again neglect to consult the Lord, and go further astray as a result.
The Gibeonites Save Themselves by Trickery
9 Now when all the kings who were beyond the Jordan in the hill country and in the lowland all along the coast of the Great Sea toward Lebanon—the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites—heard of this, 2 they gathered together with one accord to fight Joshua and Israel.
3 But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai, 4 they on their part acted with cunning: they went and prepared provisions, and took worn-out sacks for their donkeys, and wineskins, worn-out and torn and mended, 5 with worn-out, patched sandals on their feet, and worn-out clothes; and all their provisions were dry and moldy. 6 They went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal, and said to him and to the Israelites, “We have come from a far country; so now make a treaty with us.” 7 But the Israelites said to the Hivites, “Perhaps you live among us; then how can we make a treaty with you?”
8 They said to Joshua, “We are your servants.” And Joshua said to them, “Who are you? And where do you come from?” 9 They said to him, “Your servants have come from a very far country, because of the name of the Lord your God; for we have heard a report of him, of all that he did in Egypt, 10 and of all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, King Sihon of Heshbon, and King Og of Bashan who lived in Ashtaroth. 11 So our elders and all the inhabitants of our country said to us, ‘Take provisions in your hand for the journey; go to meet them, and say to them, “We are your servants; come now, make a treaty with us.”’
12 Here is our bread; it was still warm when we took it from our houses as our food for the journey, on the day we set out to come to you, but now, see, it is dry and moldy; 13 these wineskins were new when we filled them, and see, they are burst; and these garments and sandals of ours are worn out from the very long journey.” 14 So the leaders partook of their provisions, and did not ask direction from the Lord. 15 And Joshua made peace with them, guaranteeing their lives by a treaty; and the leaders of the congregation swore an oath to them.
16 But when three days had passed after they had made a treaty with them, they heard that they were their neighbors and were living among them. 17 So the Israelites set out and reached their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath-jearim. 18 But the Israelites did not attack them, because the leaders of the congregation had sworn to them by the Lord, the God of Israel. Then all the congregation murmured against the leaders. 19 But all the leaders said to all the congregation, “We have sworn to them by the Lord, the God of Israel, and now we must not touch them. 20 This is what we will do to them: We will let them live, so that wrath may not come upon us, because of the oath that we swore to them.” 21 The leaders said to them, “Let them live.” So they became hewers of wood and drawers of water for all the congregation, as the leaders had decided concerning them.
22 Joshua summoned them, and said to them, “Why did you deceive us, saying, ‘We are very far from you,’ while in fact you are living among us? 23 Now therefore you are cursed, and some of you shall always be slaves, hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God.” 24 They answered Joshua, “Because it was told to your servants for a certainty that the Lord your God had commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land before you; so we were in great fear for our lives because of you, and did this thing. 25 And now we are in your hand: do as it seems good and right in your sight to do to us.” 26 This is what he did for them: he saved them from the Israelites; and they did not kill them. 27 But on that day Joshua made them hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the Lord, to continue to this day, in the place that he should choose.
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 the subtext of this episode, and of what follows, is more troubling than is immediately apparent. The city and inhabitants of Gibeon are as much involved in the sins of the Amorites in Canaan as were Jericho and Ai, Sihon and Og; they are not repenting and renouncing those evil gods and wicked practices in making this alliance with Israel, but are trying to escape both repentance and punishment by cunning. The result of this is that the children of Israel, so recently slaves themselves, have now enslaved the Gibeonites. We might justify this by saying that at least in this way they are not killing them, but as a result of this, the evil practices of the Amorites, the worship of their evil gods, the sacrifice of children, and all this other wickedness, is remaining an active and near presence among the Israelites. In subsequent generations, they begin to embrace these practices themselves, and that evil will ultimately result in Israel itself being destroyed and expelled from the Promised Land.)
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)
First Apology of Justin Martyr – 2: 18-26
Last time we saw St. Justin explain to the emperors the teachings of the Lord that resulted in the unwillingness of the Christians to participate in the religious life of the Roman Empire. In the subsequent chapters (18-20) he makes an argument for the resurrection of the dead based on the myths and stories of the pagan religions of Greece and Rome, and still more on sound reason and the proclamation of the Gospel.
Chapter 18
Justin begins by referencing the many stories and myths of the pagan world in which the dead remain in some sense alive, and asks the emperors to give Christians the same credit. He then continues…
Treat us, therefore, in a similar manner as you treat them, for we believe in God not less, but more than they do, since we expect that our own bodies, even though they should be dead and buried in the earth, will be revived; for we claim that nothing is impossible with God.
Chapter 19
And what would seem more incredible to a thinking person that if we were not in a body and someone were to affirm that from a little drop of the human seed it were possible to shape bones, muscles and flesh into the human form we now see? Now let us make this supposition: If you yourselves had not the form you now have, and were not born of parents like yours, and someone were to show you the human seed and the painted picture of a man, and were to affirm that from such a seed such a being could be produced, would you believe him before you saw the actual production? No one would dare to deny [that you would not].
In like manner, because you have never witnessed a dead person rise again to life, you refuse to believe. But as in the beginning you would not have believed it possible that from a little seed such persons could be produced, and yet you actually see that they are, so now realize that it is not impossible that human bodies, after they are dead and disseminated in the earth like seeds, should at the appointed time, at God’s command, arise and assume immortality.
We cannot imagine what power worthy of God is attributed to Him by those who say that everything returns to that from which it was produced, and that not even God can do anything more than this. But this we clearly know, that they would not have believed it possible that from such matter they could ever have been such as they now perceive themselves and the whole world to be.
We have learned that it is better to believe what is impossible to our own nature and to men than, like other men, to be unbelievers, for we know that our Teacher, Jesus Christ, has said: ‘What is impossible with men, is possible with God.’ And again: ‘Fear not them who kill you, and after that can do you no harm; but fear him who after death is able to cast both soul and body into hell.’2 Hell, in truth, is the place of punishment for those who lived wickedly and refused to believe what God taught through Christ will take place.
Chapter 20
Indeed, Sibyl and Hystaspes foretold that all corruptible things are to be destroyed by fire. And the so-called Stoic philosophers teach that even God is to be transformed into fire, and they claim that after this evolution the world is to be made over again. We, on the contrary, believe that God, the Maker of all things, is superior to changeable things. If, therefore, we agree on some points with your honored poets and philosophers, and on other points offer a more complete and supernatural teaching, and if we alone produce proof of our statements, why are we unjustly hated beyond all others?
When we say that God created and arranged all things in this world, we seem to repeat the teaching of Plato; when we announce a final conflagration [of the world], we utter the doctrine of the Stoics; and when we assert that the souls of the wicked, living after death, will be sensibly punished, and that the souls of the good, freed from punishment, will live happily, we believe the same things as your poets and philosophers. In claiming that we should not worship the work of men’s hands, we agree with the comic poet Menander and other writers like him, for they have declared that the creator is greater than his work.
Chapters 21-22
In these chapters Justin makes many other comparisons with pagan mythology to argue that the essential doctrines of Christianity are little more surprising or unusual than many stories included in those mythologies. We don't know these stories, and explaining all of them would take more time than it is worth, so we will pass over them.
Chapter 23
To make this clear to you, we shall present the following arguments to prove: [first] that whatever statements we make, because we learned them from Christ and the Prophets who preceded Him, are alone true, and are older than all writers, and that we should be believed, not because we speak the same things as the writers, but because we speak the truth; [second] that Jesus Christ alone is properly the Son of God, since He is His Word, First-begotten, and Power, and that, having become man by His will, He taught us these doctrines for the conversion and restoration of mankind; [third] that, before He assumed human nature and dwelt among men, some, namely, those previously mentioned demons, foretold through the poets as if already accomplished those things which they invented, just as they caused to be imputed to us slanderous and impious actions, of which they can produce neither witness nor proof.
Chapters 24-26
In these chapters Justin primarily references many other stories and practices of the pagans, and also the shameful practices of certain heretical sects which claimed the name of “Christians,” all of which require more context than we can provide here, so we will allow his summary in Chapter 23 to stand for 24-26.
Thomas B. Falls with Justin Martyr, The First Apology, The Second Apology, Dialogue with Trypho, Exhortation to the Greeks, Discourse to the Greeks, The Monarchy or The Rule of God, vol. 6, The Fathers of the Church (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1948), 52–56.
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 Justin is struggling to accomplish two apparently contradictory tasks. On the one hand, he is trying to argue to the emperors that every individual belief of the Christians is at least similar to some other belief prevailing in one of the many cults or philosophies of the pagan world. But on the other, he is determined to show still more that the Christian Faith is not just another derivative of human thought and imagination, and is true and right and just in a way that none of the pagan cults can be. Thus we see him proclaiming the Resurrection of the Dead in a way that far surpasses any pagan belief. We see him affirm that God the Creator is far above any of the imagined gods of the pagan world, and we see him proclaim that Jesus Christ is the unique Son of God, entirely different and infinitely high above any of the so-called children of the pagan gods of Greece and Rome. As we have seen before, Justin is eager to save Christian lives, but not at the expense of the truth.)
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)
Mark 13:14-37
Last time we saw the Lord leave the Temple with His disciples, and begin to explain to them that Jerusalem was going to be destroyed, and that the time for the final and perfect establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth is yet to come, and that they will suffer like Him. This time, in our final reading from the Gospel of Mark this year, we will see Him explain further what will happen to Jerusalem, and how important it is that they, and the Church founded by them, must remain watchful and vigilant.
The Desolating Sacrilege
14 “But when you see the desolating sacrilege set up where it ought not to be (let the reader understand), then those in Judea must flee to the mountains; 15 the one on the housetop must not go down or enter the house to take anything away; 16 the one in the field must not turn back to get a coat. 17 Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing infants in those days! 18 Pray that it may not be in winter. 19 For in those days there will be suffering, such as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, no, and never will be. 20 And if the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would be saved; but for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he has cut short those days. 21 And if anyone says to you at that time, ‘Look! Here is the Messiah!’ or ‘Look! There he is!’—do not believe it. 22 False messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, the elect. 23 But be alert; I have already told you everything.
The Coming of the Son of Man
24 “But in those days, after that suffering,
the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light,
25 and the stars will be falling from heaven,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
26 Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory. 27 Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.
The Lesson of the Fig Tree
28 “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. 29 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. 30 Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
The Necessity for Watchfulness
32 “But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. 34 It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. 35 Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, 36 or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. 37 And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”
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 this passage is very difficult, and has been interpreted in many ways. One approach, however, is to see the Lord prophesying the destruction of the very existence of the Jews in Judaea, continuing the theme He began in prophesying the complete destruction of Jerusalem at the beginning of Chapter 13. He is also warning the disciples and the early Church about getting caught up in this destruction. Thus, in chapter 18, He is warning them that, when they see the Temple desecrated (which would happen soon afterward in A.D. 70), then the Christians should leave Jerusalem and Judaea itself, and be especially wary of anyone claiming to be the Messiah. This is to warn them against the tremendous suffering that came to everyone living in Judaea in the subsequent decades, culminating in the Bar Kochba revolt in the 130’s A.D., at which point the Jews in revolt killed many Christians, and then the Romans killed everyone. This is the suffering spoken of from verses 14-23. Then He tells them that, when He Himself returns in glory, there will be no question or doubt, in verses 24-27. Then He returns to warning them against the idea of false messiahs, and the destruction of Judaea “before that generation passes away,” as prophesied in the cursing of the fig tree, in verses 28-31. And finally, He tells them to be watchful and vigilant, and always ready for His own return, even though no one knows when "THAT day" will happen. In short, He is foretelling two distinct events, the destruction of Judaea due to false messiahs, which will be soon, and has signs that can be known, and His own return in glory, which will come later, and does not have signs that predict it. Thus, the final lesson is to avoid any idea of establishing the kingdom of God on earth, and to be always faithful and vigilant and expecting of the Kingdom of God come from heaven.)
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?