Day 1 (Monday)
1 Kingdoms 21:1-15; 22:1-23 (David and the Holy Bread, David Flees, Saul Slaughters the Priests)
Last time, we saw David finally flee from Saul, having learned, with Jonathan’s help, that Saul was indeed determined to kill him. He left Jonathan after they promised to remain friends, loyal to one another, with Jonathan especially acknowledging David as the one who would be king, and asking David to show mercy to his children in the time to come. This time, we will see David begin to be on the run, and what will come of the matter.
David and the Holy Bread
21 David came to Nob to the priest Ahimelech. Ahimelech came trembling to meet David, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?” 2 David said to the priest Ahimelech, “The king has charged me with a matter, and said to me, ‘No one must know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you.’ I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. 3 Now then, what have you at hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.”
4 The priest answered David, “I have no ordinary bread at hand, only holy bread—provided that the young men have kept themselves from women.” 5 David answered the priest, “Indeed women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition; the vessels of the young men are holy even when it is a common journey; how much more today will their vessels be holy?” 6 So the priest gave him the holy bread; for there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before the Lord, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away.
7 Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord; his name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s shepherds.
8 David said to Ahimelech, “Is there no spear or sword here with you? I did not bring my sword or my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.” 9 The priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod; if you will take that, take it, for there is none here except that one.” David said, “There is none like it; give it to me.”
David Flees to Gath
10 David rose and fled that day from Saul; he went to King Achish of Gath. 11 The servants of Achish said to him, “Is this not David the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances,
‘Saul has killed his thousands,
and David his ten thousands’?”
12 David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of King Achish of Gath. 13 So he changed his behavior before them; he pretended to be mad when in their presence. He scratched marks on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle run down his beard. 14 Achish said to his servants, “Look, you see the man is mad; why then have you brought him to me? 15 Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?”
David and His Followers at Adullam
22 David left there and escaped to the cave of Adullam; when his brothers and all his father’s house heard of it, they went down there to him. 2 Everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him; and he became captain over them. Those who were with him numbered about four hundred.
3 David went from there to Mizpeh of Moab. He said to the king of Moab, “Please let my father and mother come to you, until I know what God will do for me.” 4 He left them with the king of Moab, and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold. 5 Then the prophet Gad said to David, “Do not remain in the stronghold; leave, and go into the land of Judah.” So David left, and went into the forest of Hereth.
Saul Slaughters the Priests at Nob
6 Saul heard that David and those who were with him had been located. Saul was sitting at Gibeah, under the tamarisk tree on the height, with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing around him. 7 Saul said to his servants who stood around him, “Hear now, you Benjaminites; will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards, will he make you all commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds? 8 Is that why all of you have conspired against me? No one discloses to me when my son makes a league with the son of Jesse, none of you is sorry for me or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as he is doing today.”
9 Doeg the Edomite, who was in charge of Saul’s servants, answered, “I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech son of Ahitub; 10 he inquired of the Lord for him, gave him provisions, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.”
11 The king sent for the priest Ahimelech son of Ahitub and for all his father’s house, the priests who were at Nob; and all of them came to the king. 12 Saul said, “Listen now, son of Ahitub.” He answered, “Here I am, my lord.” 13 Saul said to him, “Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, by giving him bread and a sword, and by inquiring of God for him, so that he has risen against me, to lie in wait, as he is doing today?”
14 Then Ahimelech answered the king, “Who among all your servants is so faithful as David? He is the king’s son-in-law, and is quick[b] to do your bidding, and is honored in your house. 15 Is today the first time that I have inquired of God for him? By no means! Do not let the king impute anything to his servant or to any member of my father’s house; for your servant has known nothing of all this, much or little.” 16 The king said, “You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father’s house.” 17 The king said to the guard who stood around him, “Turn and kill the priests of the Lord, because their hand also is with David; they knew that he fled, and did not disclose it to me.” But the servants of the king would not raise their hand to attack the priests of the Lord. 18 Then the king said to Doeg, “You, Doeg, turn and attack the priests.” Doeg the Edomite turned and attacked the priests; on that day he killed eighty-five who wore the linen ephod. 19 Nob, the city of the priests, he put to the sword; men and women, children and infants, oxen, donkeys, and sheep, he put to the sword.
20 But one of the sons of Ahimelech son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled after David. 21 Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the priests of the Lord. 22 David said to Abiathar, “I knew on that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. I am responsible for the lives of all your father’s house. 23 Stay with me, and do not be afraid; for the one who seeks my life seeks your life; you will be safe with me.”
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (This is a long reading, and shows us a lot of how David is functioning in the early period of his fleeing from Saul. We see him gathering others to himself, including those who have been rejected, in a foreshadowing of the Lord going to the rejected and despised, and of His words: “Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). But in particular, the incident with the holy bread is the one that Jesus makes reference to when speaking to the Pharisees in Mark 2:26, when they criticize Him and His disciples when they are plucking and eating heads of grain on the Sabbath Day. The point being that the rule for what is holy is not intended to deny sustenance to those who are hungry. The Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath.)
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 – 5
Last time, we saw St. Anthony explain very clearly how even the attacks of the evil spirits upon the Faithful show that they have no power over us. He noted that if they had true power, they would not threaten or cajole, but would simply destroy us; that they do not do so is a strong sign of their utter weakness before the Lord whose name we bear. This time, he will explain how it is that they accomplish what often appears to be their most powerful “trick,” the foretelling of the future.
St. Anthony the Great on the Evil Spirits
Reading 5
31. “Furthermore, should they pretend to prophesy, let no one be won over. It frequently happens that they tell us days in advance about brothers who are to travel our way some days later—and these people do arrive. The demons do this not out of any concern for their hearers, but in order to persuade them to trust them, and after that, having brought them under control, to destroy them. Therefore we must not pay attention to them, but overthrow them even while they are speaking, since we have no need of them.
For what is so marvelous, if they who use bodies thinner in substance than those of humans, spying those who begin their journey, get a head start in the running and announce their arrival? This sort of thing someone riding a horse also foretells, preceding those who journey on foot. So it is not necessary to marvel at them in this case. They have no foreknowledge of things that have not yet occurred; God is the only one who knows all things before their birth (cf. Susanna 42).
But these, like thieves, run ahead and report what they see. To how many do they right now give signs regarding our affairs—that we are gathered together and that we are speaking against them—before someone could leave from among us and make a report! But some boy swift of foot could do this, outrunning one who is slower.
“What I am saying is this. Should someone begin to travel from the Thebaid, or from some other place, they do not know before he begins to walk if he will walk. But after they see him walking, they run ahead, and before he comes they announce him. And so it is that these travelers arrive after a few days. But often, when people on a journey turn back, the demons are caught in a lie.
32. “So, too, there are times when they talk nonsense about the water of the River. For when they observe numerous rains occurring in parts of Ethiopia, knowing how the flooding of the River originates there, before the water enters Egypt they rush ahead and report it. But even men could have told this, if they were able to run as fast as these. David’s watchman, when he ascended to a height, saw the person approaching better than the man who remained below, and he, as the one running ahead, told before the others not the things that had not taken place but the things already underway and happening (2 Samuel 18:24).
In just that way these demons also choose to hurry ahead and declare signs to others for the sole purpose of deceiving. But if, meanwhile, providence plans something different concerning the waters or the travelers—for this is within its power—then the demons have spoken falsely, and those who have listened to them are deceived.
33. “So it was that the oracles of the Greeks arose and they were led astray in former times by the demons. But so also has this deceit been brought to an end from this time forward, for the Lord came, who reduced to impotency not only their villainy, but the demons themselves. For they know nothing by their own power, but like thieves they pass along what they pick up from others, and they are more nearly speculators than prognosticators. If, therefore, they sometimes speak the truth, do not let anyone marvel at them for this.
It happens also that physicians who deal with illnesses, observing the same disease in different people, offer a prognosis, frequently conjecturing from what is familiar to them. And again, ships’ helmsmen and farmers, looking at the weather conditions with practiced eyes, can predict if it will be stormy or fair. Now someone would not say on this account that they are foretelling through divine inspiration, but rather, on the basis of experience and practice. So if the demons also sometimes say these same things by conjecture, let no one, for this reason, be amazed at them or pay attention to them.
For what good is it to the hearers to learn from them days in advance what is going to happen? And what is the purpose of the enthusiasm for knowing such things, even if one could, in truth, know them? This does not produce virtue, nor represent any evidence at all of good character. None of us is judged for what he does not know, any more than one is counted blessed because he is learned and possesses knowledge. It is rather in regard to these questions that each faces judgment: whether he has kept the faith and sincerely observed the commandments.
34. “Therefore we are not to attach much importance to these other things, and not for the purpose of gaining foreknowledge are we to train ourselves and labor—but rather in order that we may please God in the way we lead our lives. And we ought neither to pray that we might have the power to know things before they occur, nor ought we to ask this as a reward for our discipline—but rather that the Lord may be our fellow worker for the conquest of the devil.
But if sometime the capacity for foreknowledge matters to us, let us be pure in understanding. For I believe that when a soul is pure in every way and in its natural state, it is able, having become clearsighted, to see more and farther than the demons, since it has the Lord who reveals things to it. Elisha’s soul was like this, when it saw the things involving Giezi (2 Kings 5:26) and the armies that stood nearby (2 Kings 6:17).
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (The Leader should note that in all these things, St. Anthony is speaking from experience, and is explaining what he has observed about the attacks and temptations of evil spirits, and how they make use of their swiftness of movement, on the one hand, and of their long experience of human beings, on the other, to deceive and to lead astray. His words in this portion of the discourse are like someone pulling aside the curtain to show how a “magic” trick is accomplished.)
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 9:35-41; 10:1-6 (Spiritual Blindness, Jesus the Good Shepherd)
Last time we saw the man who had been born blind, whom the Lord had healed, making mud from dust and spittle and sending him to wash at Siloam, as he came under examination from the Pharisees, and bore witness that the man who healed him must be from God, because otherwise he could not do such a work, which had never happened since the world was made. The Pharisees mocked him for his lack of education and cast him out of the synagogue. This time, we will see what follows.
Spiritual Blindness
35 Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 He answered, “And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.” 38 He said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped him. 39 Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.” 40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.
Jesus the Good Shepherd
10 “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (The Leader should point how this entire episode is yet another opportunity that the Lord gives to the Pharisees. When they sought to kill Him for claiming to be Yahweh, the God of Israel, in the Temple, the Lord restrained them from doing what they intended, but went immediately and accomplished this sign, to bear witness to the truth of what He had said. After the healing, the man who had been granted his sight bore witness to Jesus, just as they had been demanding, but the Pharisees rejected that witness and cast him out. Thus, they have condemned themselves, yet again, and even at the end, when they claim not to be blind, the Lord shows them this, saying that if they were blind, they would be innocent of what they do, but in claiming to see, they bring that condemnation upon themselves. They are therefore identified with those who enter the sheepfold by another way, whom the sheep do not know, and thus the sheep that had been entrusted to them will be taken away when the Good Shepherd comes. Nonetheless, even so, we remember the Lord's words on the Cross, after all of this, praying that they be forgiven, because they don't know what they are doing. What we see here most profoundly is the patience and mercy 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?