Day 1 (Monday)
Judges 6:33-40; 7:1-23 (Sign of the Fleece; Gideon Routs the Midianites)
Last time, we met Gideon, and saw how the children of Israel had gone astray from the Lord, and fallen under the oppression of the Midianites and Amalekites. We saw the prophet of the Lord explain to the people why they were suffering, and then saw the Angel of the Lord come to Gideon to call him to judge Israel and deliver them from this oppression. We saw Gideon go in obedience to the Lord’s command, and destroy the altar of Baal where the people were committing idolatry, and then, when the people of the land wanted to kill Gideon, his father spoke up for him, and suggested that Baal should kill Gideon…if he was able to do so. This time, we will see the nations that had been oppressing Israel gather to attack them again, and Gideon prepare to move against them.
Midianites and Amalekites Come Against Israel
33 Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east came together, and crossing the Jordan they encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. 34 But the spirit of the Lord took possession of Gideon; and he sounded the trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called out to follow him. 35 He sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and they too were called out to follow him. He also sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they went up to meet them.
The Sign of the Fleece
36 Then Gideon said to God, “In order to see whether you will deliver Israel by my hand, as you have said, 37 I am going to lay a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will deliver Israel by my hand, as you have said.” 38 And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, “Do not let your anger burn against me, let me speak one more time; let me, please, make trial with the fleece just once more; let it be dry only on the fleece, and on all the ground let there be dew.” 40 And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew.
Gideon Surprises and Routs the Midianites
7 Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the troops that were with him rose early and encamped beside the spring of Harod; and the camp of Midian was north of them, below the hill of Moreh, in the valley.
2 The Lord said to Gideon, “The troops with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand. Israel would only take the credit away from me, saying, ‘My own hand has delivered me.’ 3 Now therefore proclaim this in the hearing of the troops, ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home.’” Thus Gideon sifted them out; twenty-two thousand returned, and ten thousand remained.
4 Then the Lord said to Gideon, “The troops are still too many; take them down to the water and I will sift them out for you there. When I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go with you; and when I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.” 5 So he brought the troops down to the water; and the Lord said to Gideon, “All those who lap the water with their tongues, as a dog laps, you shall put to one side; all those who kneel down to drink, putting their hands to their mouths, you shall put to the other side.” 6 The number of those that lapped was three hundred; but all the rest of the troops knelt down to drink water. 7 Then the Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred that lapped I will deliver you, and give the Midianites into your hand. Let all the others go to their homes.” 8 So he took the jars of the troops from their hands, and their trumpets; and he sent all the rest of Israel back to their own tents, but retained the three hundred. The camp of Midian was below him in the valley.
9 That same night the Lord said to him, “Get up, attack the camp; for I have given it into your hand. 10 But if you fear to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah; 11 and you shall hear what they say, and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to attack the camp.” Then he went down with his servant Purah to the outposts of the armed men that were in the camp. 12 The Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the east lay along the valley as thick as locusts; and their camels were without number, countless as the sand on the seashore. 13 When Gideon arrived, there was a man telling a dream to his comrade; and he said, “I had a dream, and in it a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian, and came to the tent, and struck it so that it fell; it turned upside down, and the tent collapsed.” 14 And his comrade answered, “This is no other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, a man of Israel; into his hand God has given Midian and all the army.”
15 When Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped; and he returned to the camp of Israel, and said, “Get up; for the Lord has given the army of Midian into your hand.” 16 After he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and put trumpets into the hands of all of them, and empty jars, with torches inside the jars, 17 he said to them, “Look at me, and do the same; when I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do. 18 When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you also blow the trumpets around the whole camp, and shout, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon!’”
19 So Gideon and the hundred who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just set the watch; and they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands. 20 So the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars, holding in their left hands the torches, and in their right hands the trumpets to blow; and they cried, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” 21 Every man stood in his place all around the camp, and all the men in camp ran; they cried out and fled. 22 When they blew the three hundred trumpets, the Lord set every man’s sword against his fellow and against all the army; and the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the border of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath. 23 And the men of Israel were called out from Naphtali and from Asher and from all Manasseh, and they pursued after the Midianites.
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 above all how the Lord makes sure that Gideon understands that it is the Lord Himself that grants the victory, pruning down the mustered soldiers until only 300 are left. Despite this, Gideon seems already set to take credit for the victory, as we can see by the battle cry he gives to his soldiers. Besides this, it is also worth noting one element from the Fathers of the Church in their commentaries about the sign of the fleece; Origin (in his Homilies on Judges, the early Patristic age’s great commentator on the Old Testament, sees this sign as showing first the place of Israel among the other nations (when the fleece alone was bedewed, and the ground around was dry), and then as showing the place of Rabbinic Judaism after Christ’s coming (when the ground around was bedewed, and the fleece alone was dry). He cites Psalm 71 for this, which says of the Messiah that “He shall come down like rain upon the fleece” and water the entire world. Of course, those who continue to practice Judaism in rejection of Christianity are not bereft of grace by God; they have only to turn and embrace their Messiah. But as they remain, then their altars and their worship remain bereft of the active and visible grace of God which they have been seeking since the 1st Temple was destroyed. Augustine and other Fathers follow after Origin in this; Augustine makes the particular point that all those who resist visible grace are in this same position (in his sermon 81.9). The Jews, he says, have a particular allowance, but what about so-called Christian people who resist the grace and the call of the Lord. The dry fleece in the midst of the wet is a sobering image of our state when we resist and reject the grace and love of the Lord.)
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)
Anaphora of St. John Chrysostom
In these last several weeks, in our Day 1 Readings, we have been reading about how God called Jacob, and brought him through trials and hardships back to the Promised Land. We have then jumped several hundred years forward in time, to the period of the Judges, when Jacob’s descendants, the children of Israel, were residents in the Promised Land, but continually rebelled against God, called upon Him for help, and were delivered. This is a constant pattern throughout the Old Testament (and into this time of the New Covenant in which we live). The entire scope of the matter is summed up by St. John Chrysostom in his Anaphora Prayers (from the Divine Liturgy we celebrate every Sunday), and it is this that we will read today. These prayers begin immediately after the Faithful have completed confessing the Creed.
The Holy Anaphora begins with a dialogue between the Priest and the People:
Priest: Let us stand well. Let us stand in awe. Let us be attentive, that we may present the holy offering in peace.
People: A mercy of peace; a sacrifice of praise.
Priest: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.
People: And with your spirit
Priest: Let us lift up our hearts.
People: We lift them up to the Lord
Priest: Let us give thanks to the Lord
People: It is proper and right.
Prayer of the Anaphora (this prayer is said by the Priest)
It is proper and right to hymn You, to bless You, to praise You, to give thanks to You, and to worship You in every place of Your dominion. For You, O God, are ineffable, inconceivable, invisible, incomprehensible, existing forever, forever the same, You and Your only-begotten Son and Your Holy Spirit. You brought us out of nothing into being, and when we had fallen away, You raised us up again. You left nothing undone until you had led us up to heaven and granted us Your Kingdom, which is to come.
For all these things, we thank You and Your only-begotten Son and Your Holy Spirit: for all things we know and do not know, for blessings manifest and hidden that have been bestowed on us. We thank You also for this Liturgy, which You have deigned to receive from our hands, even though thousands of archangels and tens of thousands of angels stand around You, the Cherubim and Seraphim, six-winged, many-eyed, soaring aloft upon their wings, Singing the triumphal hymn, exclaiming, proclaiming, and saying,
The Choir & People sing the following hymn:
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 in the highest.
Meanwhile the Priest continues with the Prayer of the Anaphora
Together with these blessed powers, Master, Who loves mankind, we also exclaim and say: Holy are You and most holy, You and Your only-begotten Son and Your Holy Spirit. Holy are You and most holy, and sublime is Your glory. You so loved Your world that You gave Your only-begotten Son so that everyone who believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
When He had come and fulfilled for our sake the entire plan of salvation, on the night in which He was delivered up, or rather when He delivered Himself up for the life of the world, He took bread in His holy, pure, and blameless hands, and, giving thanks and blessing, He hallowed and broke it, and gave it to His holy disciples and apostles, saying:
Take, eat, this is My Body, which is broken for you for the remission of sins.
Likewise, after partaking of the supper, He took the cup, saying,
Drink of this, all of you; this is My Blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins.
Epiclesis
Remembering, therefore, this saving commandment and all that has been done for our sake: the Cross, the tomb, the Resurrection on the third day, the Ascension into heaven, the enthronement at the right hand, and the second and glorious coming again.
Your own of Your own we offer to You, in all and for all.
We praise You, we bless You, we give thanks to You, and we pray to You, Lord our God.
Consecration of the Gifts
Once again we offer to You this spiritual worship without the shedding of blood, and we ask, pray, and entreat You: send down Your Holy Spirit upon us and upon these gifts here presented.
And make this bread the precious Body of Your Christ.
And that which is in this cup the precious Blood of Your Christ.
Changing them by Your Holy Spirit.
So that they may be to those who partake of them for vigilance of soul, forgiveness of sins, communion of Your Holy Spirit, fulfillment of the kingdom of heaven, confidence before You, and not in judgment or condemnation. Again, we offer this spiritual worship for those who repose in the faith, forefathers, fathers, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, preachers, evangelists, martyrs, confessors, ascetics, and for every righteous spirit made perfect in faith.
Especially for our all-holy, pure, most blessed and glorious Lady, the Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary.
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (The Leader should note the essential narrative of these prayers; St. John begins by speaking of Who God is and what He has done, how He has done everything necessary for our salvation, from the beginning up to the end, and finally and most perfectly gave us His Only-Begotten Son, Who showed us how to celebrate the Eucharist, and completed the work of our salvation in His Passion, Resurrection, Ascension, and Second Coming. It is for all this that we offer ourselves as an offering of thanksgiving to God, truly celebrating the Eucharist, and asking the Father to send down the Holy Spirit upon us and the Gifts that we offer, to make us truly the Body of Christ, so that we may be transformed and healed and counted among the number of the Saints whom we commemorate as well, and so that through us, the Church, all the Creation may be sanctified and saved.)
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)
John 5:31-47 (Witnesses to Jesus)
Last time, we saw Jesus speaking to the Pharisees about His authority to heal on the Sabbath Day, after they confronted and attacked Him on this matter. Specifically, He asserted His authority over even the dead, establishing a connection between the Sabbath Day itself, and His own coming rest on the day after His Crucifixion, that Great and Holy Sabbath Day. This time, He will continue with His rebuttal of their criticisms, and give them a warning that they stand in peril of their souls, as they are rejecting the fulfillment of the very Scriptures they claim to protect and teach.
Witnesses to Jesus
30 “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me. 31 “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. 32 There is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that his testimony to me is true. 33 You sent messengers to John, and he testified to the truth. 34 Not that I accept such human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved. 35 He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.
36 But I have a testimony greater than John’s. The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. 37 And the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen his form, 38 and you do not have his word abiding in you, because you do not believe him whom he has sent.
39 “You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. 40 Yet you refuse to come to me to have life. 41 I do not accept glory from human beings. 42 But I know that you do not have the love of God in you. 43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; if another comes in his own name, you will accept him.
44 How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one who alone is God? 45 Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. 46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. 47 But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?”
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 essence of what Jesus is saying. Last time, having been accused of healing on the day reserved for rest, He told the Pharisees that His Father was still working, and He was still working, and that He does what the Father tells Him to do, and that the hour was coming, and indeed was arrived, when even the dead would hear His voice and live, foretelling the actual Great Day of Rest when He would lie bodily in the tomb, but descend to Hades and call the dead to arise. But here, He tells them that they don’t need to listen to Him speaking about this, because John the Baptist has already proclaimed Him. But He then goes further, and warns them that all the Scriptures bear witness to His coming, and that they are therefore without defense if they persist in rejecting 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?