Day 1 (Monday)
Proverbs 3:11-35
For the last several weeks, we have been reading through the book of Joshua, and have seen how Yahweh, the God of Israel, brought His people into the land of promise, and destroyed the Amorites, the so-called giant clans, those devoted to the worship and service of evil gods in rebellion against Yahweh. We saw how the Lord promised to be always with His people, if they would only remain faithful to Him. Over the rest of the Old Testament, we see Him fulfil this promise, and even when His people are unfaithful to Him (as they are, almost immediately and constantly throughout the centuries), He both disciplines them and calls them back to repentance and restoration, until He comes Himself, our Lord Jesus Christ, to finally and perfectly reconcile us with Himself. This time, as an interlude, we will read from the book of Proverbs a passage that speaks about faithfulness and righteousness and the discipline and patience of the Lord.
Do Not Despise the Lord’s Discipline
11 My child, do not despise the Lord’s discipline
or be weary of his reproof,
12 for the Lord reproves the one he loves,
as a father the son in whom he delights.
The True Wealth
13 Happy are those who find wisdom,
and those who get understanding,
14 for her income is better than silver,
and her revenue better than gold.
15 She is more precious than jewels,
and nothing you desire can compare with her.
16 Long life is in her right hand;
in her left hand are riches and honor.
17 Her ways are ways of pleasantness,
and all her paths are peace.
18 She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her;
those who hold her fast are called happy.
God’s Wisdom in Creation
19 The Lord by wisdom founded the earth;
by understanding he established the heavens;
20 by his knowledge the deeps broke open,
and the clouds drop down the dew.
The True Security
21 My child, do not let these escape from your sight:
keep sound wisdom and prudence,
22 and they will be life for your soul
and adornment for your neck.
23 Then you will walk on your way securely
and your foot will not stumble.
24 If you sit down, you will not be afraid;
when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.
25 Do not be afraid of sudden panic,
or of the storm that strikes the wicked;
26 for the Lord will be your confidence
and will keep your foot from being caught.
27 Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due,
when it is in your power to do it.
28 Do not say to your neighbor, “Go, and come again,
tomorrow I will give it”—when you have it with you.
29 Do not plan harm against your neighbor
who lives trustingly beside you.
30 Do not quarrel with anyone without cause,
when no harm has been done to you.
31 Do not envy the violent
and do not choose any of their ways;
32 for the perverse are an abomination to the Lord,
but the upright are in his confidence.
33 The Lord’s curse is on the house of the wicked,
but he blesses the abode of the righteous.
34 Toward the scorners he is scornful,
but to the humble he shows favor.
35 The wise will inherit honor,
but stubborn fools, disgrace.
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 the outline of this passage, and how it continues from what we read back in January, which urged us to be attentive to the Lord’s instruction. This time, we begin with an assurance that God will discipline us, but out of love and a desire to restore us. We continue with an ode to wisdom, an assurance that walking in the way of the Lord is the path to joy and peace, and to communion with God, Who is the source of wisdom. It concludes with a set of instructions regarding the application of wisdom in daily life.)
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: 42-46
Last time, we saw St. Justin go through several prophecies of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, explaining both the prophecies and their fulfillment to the emperors, as a proof of the truth of the Lord’s Gospel. He continues in chapters 36 – 41 with prophecies and explanations regarding the Lord’s crucifixion and rejection by His people, and yet reigning after His crucifixion. He gives further prophecies and examples regarding the preaching of the Gospel by “twelve illiterate men” into all the world, and the transformation of many people through faithfulness to the Lord, and ends with a prophetic warning to the emperors: “And now, O ye kings, understand, receive instruction, you that judge the earth. Serve ye the Lord with fear, and rejoice unto Him with trembling. Embrace discipline, lest at any time the Lord be angry, and you perish from the just way, when His wrath is suddenly kindled; blessed are all they that trust in Him” (chapter 40), because it is the Lord Jesus Christ Who reigns over all (chapter 41). Moving forward, St. Justin deals with the question of prophecy and free will.
Chapter 42
Now we will explain why the Prophetic Spirit speaks of what is about to take place as if it had already happened (as may be seen in the above-quoted passages), so that our readers will have no excuse [for remaining in error]. The things which He certainly knows will come to pass He foretells as if they have already come to pass. You must give your full attention to these prophecies to realize that they must be accepted as such. David uttered the words quoted [in the preceding chapter] fifteen hundred years before Christ the Incarnate was crucified, and no one before Him or after Him occasioned joy among the Gentiles by being crucified. Yet, our Jesus Christ, after His crucifixion and death, arose from the dead and, after ascending into Heaven, ruled there; through the tidings announced by the Apostles in His name to the people of every nation, joy is given to those who look forward to the immortality promised by Him.
Chapter 43
Now, lest some persons conclude from what we have just stated that whatever takes place must necessarily do so by force of destiny, because of the prediction of things foreknown, we make answer to this, too. Through the Prophets we have learned, and we profess as true, that punishments, and torments, and wonderful rewards are distributed according to the merit of each man’s actions. If such were not the case, but everything were to happen by fate, no choice would be in our power at all.
For, if fate decrees that this man is to be good and this other man evil, neither the former is praiseworthy, nor the latter blameworthy. Furthermore, if man does not have the free faculty to shun evil and to choose good, then, whatever his actions may be, he is not responsible for them. But we will now prove that only by free will does man act rightly and wrongfully. We observe a man in pursuit of opposite things; if, however, he were destined to be either evil or good, he would not be able to attain both opposites nor would he change his mind so often. Nor would some men be good and others evil, for then we would have to affirm fate to be the cause of good and evil and to act in opposition to itself; or what has been declared above would seem to be true, namely, that neither virtue nor vice is any thing real, but things are considered either good or bad by opinion only—which, as sound reason shows, is the greatest impiety and injustice.
This, however, we say is inevitable fate, that they who choose good have merited rewards, just as those who prefer the contrary have appropriate punishments. God did not create man like the other beings, trees and quadrupeds, for example, which can do nothing by free choice. For, neither would he deserve reward or praise if he did not choose good of his own accord, but were created precisely for this purpose; nor, if he were sinful, would he deserve punishment, since he would not be such of himself nor able to be other than what he was born.
Chapter 44
Indeed, the Holy Prophetic Spirit taught us this when He informed us through Moses that God spoke the following words to the first man: ‘Behold, before thy face are good and evil, choose the good.’ And again, through Isaias, another Prophet, as from God the Father and Lord of the universe, the following words were spoken in the same vein: ‘Wash yourselves, be clean; banish sin from your souls, learn to do well; judge for the fatherless, and defend the widow; and then come and let us reason together, saith the Lord: And if your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as wool; and if they be red as crimson, I will make them white as snow. And if you be willing and will hearken to Me, you shall eat the good things of the land; but if you will not hear Me, the sword shall devour you. For thus has spoken the mouth of the Lord.’
The words, ‘The sword shall devour you,’ do not mean that the disobedient will be put to death by swords, but that the sword of God is the fire of which those who choose to do evil shall be made the fuel. Therefore, He says: ‘The sword shall devour you: for thus has spoken the mouth of the Lord.’ If, however, He had meant a sword that cuts and immediately destroys, He would not have used the expression, ‘shall devour.’ Plato, too, when he stated: ‘To him who chooses belongs the guilt, but in God there is no guilt,’ borrowed the thought from the Prophet Moses. Indeed, Moses is more ancient than all the Greek authors, and everything the philosophers and poets said in speaking about the immortality of the soul, or retribution after death, or speculation on celestial matters, or other similar doctrines, they took from the Prophets as the source of information, and from them they have been able to understand and explain these matters. Thus, the seeds of truth seem to be among all men, but that they did not grasp their exact meaning is evident from the fact that they contradict themselves.
So, if we declare that future events have been predicted, by that we do not claim that they take place by the necessity of fate. But, since God has foreknowledge of what all men will do, and has ordained that each man will be rewarded in accordance with the merit of his actions, foretells through the Prophetic Spirit that He Himself will reward them in accordance with the merit of their deeds, ever urging men to reflection and remembrance, proving that He both cares and provides for them…
Chapter 46
Lest some should unreasonably assert, in order to turn men from our teaching, that we affirm that Christ was born one hundred and fifty years ago under Quirinius, and then afterward, under Pontius Pilate, taught what we claim He did, and should accuse us as if [we said] all men born before the time of Christ were not accountable for their actions, we shall anticipate and answer such a difficulty. We have been taught that Christ was First-begotten of God [the Father] and we have indicated above that He is the Word of whom all mankind partakes. Those who lived by reason are Christians, even though they have been considered atheists: such as, among the Greeks, Socrates, Heraclitus, and others like them; and among the foreigners, Abraham, Elias, Ananias, Azarias, Misael, and many others whose deeds or names we now forbear to enumerate, for we think it would be too long. So, also, they who lived before Christ and did not live by reason were useless men, enemies of Christ, and murderers of those who did live by reason. But those who have lived reasonably, and still do, are Christians, and are fearless and untroubled. From all that has been said an intelligent man can understand why, through the power of the Word, in accordance with the will of God, the Father and Lord of all, He was born as a man of a virgin, was named Jesus, was crucified, died, rose again, and ascended into Heaven. But, since the proof of this topic is not necessary at this time, we shall now proceed to the proof of more urgent matters.
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), 78–84.
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (Leader should note that Justin’s primary point here, now that he has established that everything that has happened regarding Jesus Christ and the Church and the Romans was prophesied, is to make clear that these prophecies do NOT mean that everything is pre-determined, nor do they mean that each individual is not responsible for his or her actions and decisions. In the midst of this, however, we see many essential and normal expressions of the Orthodox Faith, and also the interesting assertion that all truth, even that of the Greek philosophers, is borrowed from Moses, and that Socrates and Heraclitus and others are pre-Christian Christians, as they truly lived by reason, which is to say, by the Word. This is by no means a universal position of the Fathers, but Justin is known for asserting it, and it has sometimes been depicted in Orthodox iconography. Examples of these icons may be found here and here.
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)
2 Peter 2
Last time we began to read the 2nd General Epistle of St. Peter. He is speaking to encourage the Church in the face of present persecutions, and in this chapter, he is warning them against heresies and errors that are threatening the Church at the same time.
False Prophets and Their Punishment
2 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive opinions. They will even deny the Master who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2 Even so, many will follow their licentious ways, and because of these teachers the way of truth will be maligned. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation, pronounced against them long ago, has not been idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
4 For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of deepest darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 and if he did not spare the ancient world, even though he saved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood on a world of the ungodly; 6 and if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction and made them an example of what is coming to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the lawless 8 (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by their lawless deeds that he saw and heard), 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment 10 —especially those who indulge their flesh in depraved lust, and who despise authority.
Bold and willful, they are not afraid to slander the glorious ones, 11 whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not bring against them a slanderous judgment from the Lord. 12 These people, however, are like irrational animals, mere creatures of instinct, born to be caught and killed. They slander what they do not understand, and when those creatures are destroyed, they also will be destroyed, 13 suffering the penalty for doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their dissipation while they feast with you. 14 They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! 15 They have left the straight road and have gone astray, following the road of Balaam son of Bosor, who loved the wages of doing wrong, 16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
17 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm; for them the deepest darkness has been reserved. 18 For they speak bombastic nonsense, and with licentious desires of the flesh they entice people who have just escaped from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for people are slaves to whatever masters them. 20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment that was passed on to them. 22 It has happened to them according to the true proverb,
“The dog turns back to its own vomit,”
and,
“The sow is washed only to wallow in the mud.”
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 we may find St. Peter’s vehemence about heresies and those who justify sinfulness shocking, but he is intent on showing that these false ideas, these justifications of sin, are entirely destructive of the soul. It is worst of all for those who are Christians, who were baptized and purified, but turned back again into sinfulness after receiving the truth. This is a warning that all of us need to take to heart, especially in this day and age, in which so much sinfulness is justified and defended and called good.)
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?