Day 1 (Monday)
1 Kingdoms 17:12-58 (David & Goliath)
Last time, we began the story of David, and saw him anointed as God's chosen king by the prophet Samuel, and then begin to serve Saul as his armor-bearer, also playing the harp and singing for him when he was troubled by the evil spirit that began to oppress him after he abandoned the way of the Lord. We also saw the war between Israel and the Philistines heat up, as the Philistines encamped in the territory of the tribe of Judah, and their champion, Goliath, came out to challenge the men of Israel to come out and fight him. This week, we will see what happens when David hears this challenge.
David & Goliath
12 Now David was the son of an Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah, named Jesse, who had eight sons. In the days of Saul the man was already old and advanced in years. 13 The three eldest sons of Jesse had followed Saul to the battle; the names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, and next to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah. 14 David was the youngest; the three eldest followed Saul, 15 but David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father’s sheep at Bethlehem. 16 For forty days the Philistine came forward and took his stand, morning and evening.
17 Jesse said to his son David, “Take for your brothers an ephah of this parched grain and these ten loaves, and carry them quickly to the camp to your brothers; 18 also take these ten cheeses to the commander of their thousand. See how your brothers fare, and bring some token from them.”
19 Now Saul, and they, and all the men of Israel, were in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines. 20 David rose early in the morning, left the sheep with a keeper, took the provisions, and went as Jesse had commanded him. He came to the encampment as the army was going forth to the battle line, shouting the war cry. 21 Israel and the Philistines drew up for battle, army against army. 22 David left the things in charge of the keeper of the baggage, ran to the ranks, and went and greeted his brothers. 23 As he talked with them, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines, and spoke the same words as before. And David heard him.
24 All the Israelites, when they saw the man, fled from him and were very much afraid. 25 The Israelites said, “Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel. The king will greatly enrich the man who kills him, and will give him his daughter and make his family free in Israel.” 26 David said to the men who stood by him, “What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine, and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” 27 The people answered him in the same way, “So shall it be done for the man who kills him.”
28 His eldest brother Eliab heard him talking to the men; and Eliab’s anger was kindled against David. He said, “Why have you come down? With whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your presumption and the evil of your heart; for you have come down just to see the battle.” 29 David said, “What have I done now? It was only a question.” 30 He turned away from him toward another and spoke in the same way; and the people answered him again as before.
31 When the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul; and he sent for him. 32 David said to Saul, “Let no one’s heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” 33 Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are just a boy, and he has been a warrior from his youth.” 34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father; and whenever a lion or a bear came, and took a lamb from the flock, 35 I went after it and struck it down, rescuing the lamb from its mouth; and if it turned against me, I would catch it by the jaw, strike it down, and kill it. 36 Your servant has killed both lions and bears; and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living God.” 37 David said, “The Lord, who saved me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will save me from the hand of this Philistine.” So Saul said to David, “Go, and may the Lord be with you!”
38 Saul clothed David with his armor; he put a bronze helmet on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail. 39 David strapped Saul’s sword over the armor, and he tried in vain to walk, for he was not used to them. Then David said to Saul, “I cannot walk with these; for I am not used to them.” So David removed them. 40 Then he took his staff in his hand, and chose five smooth stones from the wadi, and put them in his shepherd’s bag, in the pouch; his sling was in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine.
41 The Philistine came on and drew near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. 42 When the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was only a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. 43 The Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the field.” 45 But David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This very day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head; and I will give the dead bodies of the Philistine army this very day to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the earth, so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, 47 and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not save by sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hand.”
48 When the Philistine drew nearer to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. 49 David put his hand in his bag, took out a stone, slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead; the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground.
50 So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, striking down the Philistine and killing him; there was no sword in David’s hand. 51 Then David ran and stood over the Philistine; he grasped his sword, drew it out of its sheath, and killed him; then he cut off his head with it.
When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. 52 The troops of Israel and Judah rose up with a shout and pursued the Philistines as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron, so that the wounded Philistines fell on the way from Shaaraim as far as Gath and Ekron. 53 The Israelites came back from chasing the Philistines, and they plundered their camp. 54 David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem; but he put his armor in his tent.
55 When Saul saw David go out against the Philistine, he said to Abner, the commander of the army, “Abner, whose son is this young man?” Abner said, “As your soul lives, O king, I do not know.” 56 The king said, “Inquire whose son the stripling is.” 57 On David’s return from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul, with the head of the Philistine in his hand. 58 Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, young man?” And David answered, “I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.”
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (The Leader should point the distinction between David's response to Goliath's challenge, and Goliath's original challenge. Goliath was boasting of his own strength, but while David is bold and courageous, his boasting is rather in the salvation and strength of the Lord. Beyond that, we should note the elements in David that prefigure our Lord Jesus Christ; besides being a shepherd, as we already noted, and being the one who brings victory against the enemies of God, whether demons or giants, David is also the one who brings nourishment to His brothers, and, perhaps most striking of all, he kills Goliath with the giant's own sword. This is mentioned in some early Christian literature, which connects this instance of Goliath being defeated by his own weapon with the Lord conquering and destroying the power of death by means of death. The weapons of the enemy are turned against him by the Lord. Finally, it is important, I think, that David knocks Goliath down with a stone from the stream, as it is thus a stone "not made with hands," and the imagery is not dissimilar to that which we saw in Nebuchaznezzar's dream of the great image destroyed by the rock not cut out by human hands, which overthrew the kingdoms of this world and then grew to fill the entire world. David's descendant, our Lord Jesus Christ, whom this young man prefigures even now, is that Rock, which is refashioning the entire Created order.)
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)
St. Anthony the Great
We began last week to read through a discourse of St. Anthony the Great, discussing the shape and the work of the Christian life. He emphasized last time the need to keep the larger perspective of our existence in mind, that we are created for an eternity of glory in communion with the Lord, and that the small pleasures and temptations that we renounce in this world are nothing compared with that glory. He urged, as well, that we constantly keep our own death in our mind, as a way to help us hold that perspective, and to always hold fast to the Kingdom of God, and not to be enslaved to the things of this world. This time, he will continue by describing what our journey in Christ is like.
St. Anthony the Great on the Evil Spirits
Reading 2
20. “Having therefore made a beginning, and set out already on the way of virtue, let us press forward to what lies ahead (Philippians 3:13). And let none turn back as Lot’s wife did, especially since the Lord said, No one who puts his hand to the plow and turns back is fit for the Kingdom of heaven (Luke 9:62). Now ‘turning back’ is nothing except feeling regret and once more thinking about things of the world. But do not be afraid to hear about virtue, and do not be a stranger to the term. For it is not distant from us, nor does it stand external to us, but its realization lies in us, and the task is easy if only we shall will it.
Now the Greeks leave home and traverse the sea in order to gain an education, but there is no need for us to go abroad on account of the Kingdom of heaven, nor to cross the sea for virtue. For the Lord has told us before, the Kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21). All virtue needs, then, is our willing, since it is in us, and arises from us. For virtue exists when the soul maintains its intellectual part according to nature. It holds fast according to nature when it remains as it was made—and it was made beautiful and perfectly straight. It was for this reason that Joshua, son of Nun, when exhorting the people, said: “Set your heart straight toward the Lord God of Israel” (Joshua 24:23). John’s urging was: “Make your paths straight” (Matthew 3:3)
As far as the soul is concerned, being straight consists in its intellectual part’s being according to nature, as it was created. But when it turns from its course and is twisted away from what it naturally is, then we speak of the vice of the soul. So the task is not difficult, for if we remain as we were made, we are in virtue, but if we turn our thoughts toward contemptible things, we are condemned as evil. If the task depended on something external that must be procured, it would be truly difficult, but since the matter centers in us, let us protect ourselves from sordid ideas, and, since we have received it as a trust, let us preserve the soul for the Lord, so that he may recognize his work as being just the same as he made it.
21. Let the contest be ours, so that anger does not rule us or desire overwhelm us, for it is written: “The anger of man does not work the righteousness of God, and desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death” (James 1:20, 1:15). Conducting our lives in this manner, let us carefully keep watch, and as Scripture says, “let us keep our heart in all watchfulness” (Proverbs 3:23). For we have terrible and villainous enemies—the evil demons, and our contending is against these, as the Apostle said—“not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:16). So the mob of them is great in the air around us, and they are not far from us. But the difference between them is great. A speech about their natures and distinctions would be lengthy, and such a discourse is for others greater than us. For the present, that which is pressing and necessary for us is simply to know their unscrupulous tricks against us.
22. “First we ought to understand this: The demons were not created as the figures we now identify by ‘demon,’ for God made nothing bad. They were made good, but falling from the heavenly wisdom and thereafter wandering around the earth, they deceived the Greeks through apparitions. And envious of us Christians, they meddle with all things in their desire to frustrate our journey into heaven, so that we might not ascend to the place from which they themselves fell.
Therefore much prayer and asceticism is needed so that one who receives through the Spirit the gift of discrimination of spirits (1 Cor. 12:7 & 10) might be able to recognize their traits—for example, which of them are less wicked, and which more; and in what kind of pursuit each of them exerts himself, and how each of them is overturned and expelled. For numerous are their treacheries and the moves in their plot. The blessed apostle and his companions recognized these when they said, “We are not ignorant of his designs” (2 Cor. 2:11), and on the basis of our testings by them, we ought to set each other on the right path, away from them. Therefore I, having had my share of trial from them, address you as my children.
23. “Should they see any Christians—monks, especially—laboring gladly and advancing, they first attack and tempt them, placing stumbling blocks in the way. Their stumbling blocks consist of evil thoughts. But we need not fear their suggestions, for by prayers and fasting and by faith in the Lord they are brought down immediately. But even after they fall they do not cease, but approach again, with malice and cunning. When they are unable to deceive the heart by conspicuous and filthy pleasure, again they make another kind of assault, and pretend to frighten it by fabricating phantasms, transforming themselves, and imitating women, beasts, reptiles, and huge bodies and thousands of soldiers. Nevertheless we need not fear their apparitions, for they are nothing and they disappear quickly—especially if one fortifies himself with faith and the sign of the cross.
To be sure, they are daring and completely shameless, for if they are thus conquered, they simply attack again in another way. They pretend to prophesy and to predict things to come, and they appear to be as tall as a roof and vast in width, so that those they were unable to lead astray with thoughts they might deviously snatch away by means of the phantasms. But should they in this case also find the soul secure in the faith and the hopeful purpose, then they bring forward their leader.”
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 what St. Anthony is doing here is describing, on the one hand, how natural and "easy" it is to walk in faithfulness to God, as it is for this that we are created, and only in Him are we at peace and at rest…but on the other, he explains why it is that this is difficult nonetheless, because of the attacks of the evil spirits against us. In describing their attacks, and the correct response to their attacks, he arrives at his main theme…but the great point that he makes is their fundamental weakness. They have no power over us except what we give to them, because the Lord has overthrown their power and trampled them underfoot by means of the Cross, through His life-giving death and resurrection..)
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 8:21-38 (Jesus Foretells His Death, True Disciples)
Last time, we saw the Lord continue to speak to His people in the Temple, preaching, on the one hand, to all the people, but disputing with the Pharisees on the other, as they continue to attack Him and seek to undermine the authority He has with the people. When He told them that He was the light of the world, and all those who reject Him walk in darkness, we saw the intensity of the conversation, and of their opposition to Him, begin to grow still stronger. He continues at this point, and foretells that they will indeed kill Him.
Jesus Foretells His Death
21 Again he said to them, “I am going away, and you will search for me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.” 22 Then the Jews said, “Is he going to kill himself? Is that what he means by saying, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” 23 He said to them, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he.” 25 They said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Why do I speak to you at all? 26 I have much to say about you and much to condemn; but the one who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.” 27 They did not understand that he was speaking to them about the Father. 28 So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own, but I speak these things as the Father instructed me. 29 And the one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him.” 30 As he was saying these things, many believed in him.
True Disciples
31 Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?”
34 Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. 36 So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are descendants of Abraham; yet you look for an opportunity to kill me, because there is no place in you for my word. 38 I declare what I have seen in the Father’s presence; as for you, you should do what you have heard from the Father.”
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 throughout this passage, the Lord is continuing to speak to those who trust in Him, even as the Pharisees continue to stand by and criticize and argue with everything that He says. He is therefore often speaking to both those who believe in Him, and those who reject Him, at once, as when He tells them that they will "know the truth, and the truth will set them free." He is speaking there to those who are choosing to follow Him, but the Pharisees jump in and say that they are descendants of Abraham, and have never been slaves to anyone. But this is of course silly, because the entire foundational story of the Hebrew people is that they, being Abraham's descendents, were nonetheless slaves in Egypt until the Lord came to Moses and sent Him to lead His people out of bondage. In this we see very clearly that Jesus is coming to them, explicitly, as the God of Mosees, the God of Israel, as Yahweh Himself, but they are so determined to reject Him that they have forgotten their own identity. It is a sad moment, save for the fact that a great many of them DO hear Him and understand and believe.)
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?