Day 1 (Monday)
2 Chronicles 33:1-20 (Manasseh’s Sin & Repentance)
We read last week from Solomon’s book of Ecclesiastes, and saw him talk about how he tried the pursuit of pleasure and evil to see if there was any fulfillment in that, and found that there was none. We noted, as well, that even though Solomon seems to have repented, he set the people of Israel down a dark path, as they continued to renew and perpetuate the evil practices of the Canaanites that Yahweh had driven out before them. This week, we will see Solomon’s descendant Manasseh, and how he worked great evils throughout his very long reign, and led the people still further astray. He was the 10th or 11th generation after Solomon, and it was his great-grandsons who were the final kings of Judah, so his reign is the beginning of the end.
Reign of Manasseh
33 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign; he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. 2 He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. 3 For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had pulled down, and erected altars to the Baals, made sacred poles, worshiped all the host of heaven, and served them.
4 He built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem shall my name be forever.” 5 He built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. 6 He made his son pass through fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom, practiced soothsaying and augury and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with wizards. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.
7 The carved image of the idol that he had made he set in the house of God, of which God said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever; 8 I will never again remove the feet of Israel from the land that I appointed for your ancestors, if only they will be careful to do all that I have commanded them, all the law, the statutes, and the ordinances given through Moses.” 9 Manasseh misled Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that they did more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the people of Israel.
Manasseh Restored after Repentance
10 The Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they gave no heed. 11 Therefore the Lord brought against them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh captive in manacles, bound him with fetters, and brought him to Babylon. 12 While he was in distress he entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his ancestors. 13 He prayed to him, and God received his entreaty, heard his plea, and restored him again to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord indeed was God.
14 Afterward he built an outer wall for the city of David west of Gihon, in the valley, reaching the entrance at the Fish Gate; he carried it around Ophel, and raised it to a very great height. He also put commanders of the army in all the fortified cities in Judah. 15 He took away the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the Lord, and all the altars that he had built on the mountain of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem, and he threw them out of the city. 16 He also restored the altar of the Lord and offered on it sacrifices of well-being and of thanksgiving; and he commanded Judah to serve the Lord the God of Israel. 17 The people, however, still sacrificed at the high places, but only to the Lord their God.
Death of Manasseh
18 Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the Lord God of Israel, these are in the Annals of the Kings of Israel. 19 His prayer, and how God received his entreaty, all his sin and his faithlessness, the sites on which he built high places and set up the sacred poles and the images, before he humbled himself, these are written in the records of the seers. 20 So Manasseh slept with his ancestors, and they buried him in his house. His son Amon succeeded him.
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 in this account of the life and sins of Manasseh, we see a clear listing of the sins that were being committed by the nations that Yahweh destroyed when the people of Israel arrived at the Promised Land, with the worship of demons by means of child sacrifice. In verse 9, it says clearly that at this point, the people of Israel, who are supposed to be God’s priestly people, have instead become even worse than the nations that God destroyed. It is clear that judgment is coming, because they have given themselves over to faithlessness and evil; it is also essential to see that repentance is always possible, and that Manasseh does humble himself. But his sin has still had consequences, and even though God forgives him, the evil that he has done persists, and works to the destruction of the people. It is vital that we understand how toxic and poisonous sin is; it destroys far more than we can imagine. May the Lord deliver us from these evils!)
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 – 14: 61
Last time we saw St. Justin deal with the prophecies of the destruction of Jerusalem, and of the entrance of the Gentiles into the Church, of which he was, of course, a direct example. He proceeds after this to give a number of other prophecies, and then to describe the current state of affairs in the pagan world, in which the demons, now seeing and understanding that God Himself has entered into the Creation, are further perverting the truth and imitating it, for which lies and myths and perversions he provides a number of examples that are of only academic interest. After describing the current worship and practices of the worshippers of demons, however, he begins to describe the essential actions of Christian worship and life, and we will spend the remainder of the month on these, as he describes Baptism, the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament, the Eucharist, and other elements of Christian life in the 2nd century.
Chapter 61
Lest we be judged unfair in this exposition, we will not fail to explain how we consecrated ourselves to God when we were regenerated through Christ. Those who are convinced and believe what we say and teach is the truth, and pledge themselves to be able to live accordingly, are taught in prayer and fasting to ask God to forgive their past sins, while we pray and fast with them.
Then we lead them to a place where there is water, and they are regenerated in the same manner in which we ourselves were regenerated. In the name of God, the Father and Lord of all, and of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Ghost, they then receive the washing with water. For Christ said: ‘Unless you be born again, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.’ Now, it is clear to everyone how impossible it is for those who have been born once to enter their mothers’ wombs again.
Isaias the Prophet explained, as we already stated, how those who have sinned and then repented shall be freed of their sins. These are his words: ‘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. But if you will not hear me, the sword shall devour you: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.’
And this is the reason, taught to us by the Apostles, why we baptize the way we do. We were totally unaware of our first birth, and were born of necessity from fluid seed through the mutual union of our parents, and were trained in wicked and sinful customs. In order that we do not continue as children of necessity and ignorance, but of deliberate choice and knowledge, and in order to obtain in the water the forgiveness of past sins, there is invoked over the one who wishes to be regenerated, and who is repentant of his sins, the name of God, the Father and Lord of all; he who leads the person to be baptized to the laver calls him by this name only. (For, no one is permitted to utter the name of the ineffable God, and if anyone ventures to affirm that His name can be pronounced, such a person is hopelessly mad.) This washing is called illumination,’ since they who learn these things become illuminated intellectually. Furthermore, the illuminated one is also baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and in the name of the Holy Spirit, who predicted through the Prophets everything concerning Jesus.
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), 99–100.
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (The Leader should note first that Justin has spent the preceding chapters describing how OTHERS worship and life, and is now proceeding, in a fair-minded way, to describe the Christian way of life and worship by contrast. It is also important to note that what Justin is saying toward the end, that the person baptized is baptized in the name of the Father, etc, is that God the Father is called the Father, and not by any other name, by Christian people. Finally, it is important to note how central to Justin’s understanding of baptism is the element of a rebirth, of being born from above, as a matter both of our own choice, and more importantly of God’s action upon us as we pledge ourselves to Him.)
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)
James 1
Last time we finished the 2nd General Epistle of St. Peter, so we continue this week with the first chapter of the General Epistle of St. James. James was the first bishop of Jerusalem, and the son of Joseph the Betrothed. Because our Lord’s childhood according to the flesh was spent in the same home as St. James, James is known to the Church as the Brother of God. He doubted and misunderstood who Jesus was prior to His Crucifixion, but Jesus appeared to him after the Resurrection, and from that point, we see James always with the Church, and prominently placed as a leader. He was deeply respected by all as a righteous and pious man; Josephus suggested that the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70 was God’s judgment on the Jewish people for the killing of James, which was done by the Sadducees and Pharisees in cooperation sometime in the mid 60’s. James writes in a very practical way; he is concerned with how the people of God should live.
Salutation
1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion:
Greetings.
Faith and Wisdom
2 My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; 4 and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.
5 If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. 6 But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; 7, 8 for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.
Poverty and Riches
9 Let the believer who is lowly boast in being raised up, 10 and the rich in being brought low, because the rich will disappear like a flower in the field. 11 For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the field; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. It is the same way with the rich; in the midst of a busy life, they will wither away.
Trial and Temptation
12 Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. 13 No one, when tempted, should say, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one. 14 But one is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it; 15 then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death. 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved.
17 Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
Hearing and Doing the Word
19 You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. 21 Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.
22 But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. 23 For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; 24 for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. 25 But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.
26 If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
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 major themes of this chapter: 1) That Christians should expect trials and persecutions, and entrust themselves to God to sustain them through them, 2) That they should be generous, 3) That they should resist temptation, 4) That they should be meek and humble, 5) That they should be doers of the Lord’s commandments, and not only hearers. All of this is very practical; he sums up the Christian life as purity and generosity.)
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?