Day 1 (Monday)
2 Kingdoms 13-21 (summary), 22:15-25 (End of Pestilence, Purchase of Temple Site)
Last time, we saw David called out by the prophet Nathan for his great sin of adultery and murder, and saw the child born of that adultery die. We saw David repent, and receive from the Lord another son, named Solomon, by the woman whose husband he had murdered, and then we saw David win a great victory against the Ammonites. All might seem well, but in the next several chapters, we see that there is a deep rot in David’s household. We are going to sum up these next several chapters, as their content is shameful and ugly, and not appropriate for family reading.
Amnon and Tamar and Absalom
In Chapter 13, we see David’s firstborn son Amnon fall in love with his half-sister Tamar, whose brother Absalom was David’s third son. Amnon contrives to be alone with his half-sister, and violates her by force. David is grieved by this, but does not punish Amnon, because he is his firstborn, and he loves him. Absalom doesn’t forget, however, and after two years he tricks and betrays Amnon, and has him killed through trickery and betrayal. Absalom then flees to his mother’s family, and remains there for three years, but (Chapter 14) Joab intercedes for him, and David forgives him and welcomes him back home. But after six more years, (Chapter 15) Absalom raises a rebellion against David, and usurps the throne, and a great many of the people and the army follow Absalom, so that David has to flee from Jerusalem with only his own household, and a few faithful retainers. As he is leaving, there is one important piece that we should read in full, as the priests try to bring the Ark of the Covenant with him into exile.
Chapter 15:24 Abiathar [the priest]came up, and Zadok [the priest] also, with all the Levites, carrying the ark of the covenant of God. They set down the ark of God, until the people had all passed out of the city. 25 Then the king said to Zadok, “Carry the ark of God back into the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me back and let me see both it and the place where it stays. 26 But if he says, ‘I take no pleasure in you,’ here I am, let him do to me what seems good to him.” 27 The king also said to the priest Zadok, “Look, go back to the city in peace, you and Abiathar, with your two sons, Ahimaaz your son, and Jonathan son of Abiathar. 28 See, I will wait at the fords of the wilderness until word comes from you to inform me.” 29 So Zadok and Abiathar carried the ark of God back to Jerusalem, and they remained there.
30 But David went up the ascent of the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went, with his head covered and walking barefoot; and all the people who were with him covered their heads and went up, weeping as they went.
(Chapter 16) David makes it down the far side of the Mount of Olives just as Absalom enters Jerusalem from the other side, and proceeds across the Jordan River, back into exile. Meanwhile, (Chapter 17) Absalom sets himself up as king in his father’s place, and commits a great and unspeakable sin, and begins to prepare to pursue his father to destroy him. David, however, (Chapter 18) gathers those who are faithful to him, and prepares to return and take the kingdom back from Absalom. He only commands his generals to do all that they can to save Absalom’s life; however, in the battle, Absalom’s long hair is caught in the branches of a great oak tree, and Joab stabs Absalom through the heart with three spears.When David hears of this, he weeps and mourns, but eventually lays aside weeping to not shame his faithful followers (Chapter 19), as he returns to Jerusalem.
(Chapter 20 & 21) The rest of David’s reign is filled with more rebellions and violence. Chapters 22 & 23 give some side stories about the exploits of his mighty men. In Chapter 24, he commands a census be taken of all the fighting men, and God brings a plague upon the nation in punishment for David’s sin, depending upon his own strength. The end of this plague results in an important purchase: the site of the future Temple.
The Pestilence upon the People
15 So the Lord sent a pestilence on Israel from that morning until the appointed time; and seventy thousand of the people died, from Dan to Beer-sheba. 16 But when the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented concerning the evil, and said to the angel who was bringing destruction among the people, “It is enough; now stay your hand.” The angel of the Lord was then by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 17 When David saw the angel who was destroying the people, he said to the Lord, “I alone have sinned, and I alone have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand, I pray, be against me and against my father’s house.”
David’s Altar on the Threshing Floor
18 That day Gad came to David and said to him, “Go up and erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” 19 Following Gad’s instructions, David went up, as the Lord had commanded. 20 When Araunah looked down, he saw the king and his servants coming toward him; and Araunah went out and prostrated himself before the king with his face to the ground. 21 Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you in order to build an altar to the Lord, so that the plague may be averted from the people.” 22 Then Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him; here are the oxen for the burnt offering, and the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. 23 All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the Lord your God respond favorably to you.”
24 But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will buy them from you for a price; I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. 25 David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and offerings of well-being. So the Lord answered his supplication for the land, and the plague was averted from Israel.
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 how the character of David’s reign has now completely changed. Before the incident with Bathsheba, everything that David did was moving him up in the world, toward the kingship, toward victory, toward plenty and power and pleasure and every desirable thing. Now…very quickly…we see him lose his daughter Tamar, and his son Amnon, and then his son Absalom, so that the justice that he meted out to himself before he knew that “he was the man” is fulfilled, and he has given four of his children as penalty for the innocent life of Uriah. His kingdom is preserved, however, and then in the final passage, we see him lapse once more into the temptation of power, performing the census, which basically defines and quantifies the military power that he has at his disposal, where he should instead be trusting God. Thus we see the Lord respond immediately with a judgment, but with mercy present as well. It is not stated explicitly in the text, but this threshing floor that David buys is what becomes the site of the Temple that Solomon will build. We should note well that David insists on paying for it, not receiving it as a gift, which for him, the king, is an act of humility, as he could have seized it as easily as he had seized the wife of Uriah.)
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)
Irenaeus – Against Heresies 1 – Book 2 Excerpts 1
Over the remainder of the summer, we’ll spend the majority of our time reading selections from the great work of St. Irenaeus of Lyons, his Against Heresies. This work was written against the several Gnostic sects that were active in the 2nd Christian century. Gnosticism was quite variable, but the basic gist of the heresy (more of an umbrella term than a single heresy) is that it’s based on the idea that the Gnostic teachers had secret knowledge handed down orally outside of Scripture, the content of which tended to conflate and mix a shocking degree of polytheism with Christian notions, and generally included a strong denigration of the material world. Gnostic teachers, then, denied the Trinity, denied the full divinity of Christ, denied the Incarnation, denied the Resurrection, etc. The only thing “Christian” about them was that they tried to incorporate Christian names (Jesus, Christ, Logos, Holy Spirit, etc) into their otherwise overtly pagan system.
St. Irenaeus was born in Asia Minor, probably around 135 A.D. He was a student of St. Polycarp of Smyrna, who had himself been a disciple of St. John the Evangelist and Theologian, so he is thus a “spiritual grandson” of the Apostle. Once he reached adulthood, he went west, and seems to have spent some time in Rome before settling in the Gallic city of Lyons. He served as a presbyter there, and eventually became the bishop of the city. In the face of the Gnostic threat to his flock, he wrote the text we will be looking at over the next few weeks. It contains quite a lot of information about what the various Gnostic sects believed, and as a result, the first two of the five books that comprise the work are very tedious reading. We will start, nonetheless, with a less tedious part of Book 2, and will depend on a recent condensation of the work by James Payton; anyone who would like to purchase this book can find it here: https://www.amazon.com/Irenaeus-Christian-Faith-Condensation-Heresies/dp/1608996247/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
St. Irenaeus of Lyons – Against Heresies – Book 2 Excerpts 1
In the first book exposing “what is falsely called knowledge” [1 Tim 6:20], I laid out the whole false system, in its various contradictory forms, fabricated by the school of Valentinus. I also set forth the tenets of their predecessors, showing that they not only differed among themselves, but had long ago swerved from the truth itself.… Further, I carefully pointed out passages which they garble from the Scriptures, so as to adapt them to their own fictions. As well, I methodically laid out their audacious attempts to establish what they regard as truth by way of numbers and by the letters of the alphabet.… (2:pref, 1)
In this book, my thorough examination will bring forward all that is necessary to destroy their whole system. This will offer an exposure and subversion of their views, as the title of this work promises.… (2:pref,2)
It is fitting to begin with the first and most important point—God the creator, who made heaven and earth and everything in them, but whom these heretics blasphemously dismiss as the result of a defect. There is nothing either above or after him; he was not moved to create by another: he did so freely. He is the only God, the only Lord, the only creator, the only Father, who alone contains all things and who called everything into existence. (2:1,1)
The way the heretics argue may seem plausible or even convincing to those who do not know God, and who liken him to needy human beings or to those who cannot accomplish anything by themselves without help, but who have to use various aids to produce whatever they intend. But it will not be regarded as at all probable by those who know that God needs nothing, and that he created and made all things by his Word. He did not need the help of angels or any other power inferior to himself to produce the things which were made.… He himself, by himself alone, in a way we can neither describe nor understand, having predestined all things, formed them as he chose, bestowing harmony on all things, assigning them their particular place and the beginning of their creation.… He formed all things that were made by his Word that never wearies. (2:2,4)
It is unique to God that, in his preeminence, he needs no tools to create the things which he summons into existence. His own Word is both suitable and sufficient to create all things, as John, the disciple of the Lord, declares: “All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being” [John 1:3]. Clearly, our world must be included among the “all things.” It too was made by his Word: Scripture tells us in the book of Genesis that he made all things connected with our world by his Word. David also expresses the same truth: “For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm” [Ps 33:9].
Whom, therefore, shall we believe as to the creation of the world: these heretics who, as we have shown, prate so foolishly and inconsistently on the subject, or the disciples of the Lord, and Moses, who was both a faithful servant of God and a prophet? He began the narration of the formation of the world in these words: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” [Gen 1:1].… (2:2,5)
…
But the heretics do not believe that He who is God over all formed by his Word, in His own place and as He himself pleased, the various and diverse works we find in the creation. He is the one who formed all things, like a wise architect and a powerful monarch. But they believe that angels, or some power other than God (who was ignorant of him) formed this universe.… They are like the dog of Aesop that dropped the bread when it tried to seize its shadow, thus losing the real food. It is easy to prove from the words of the Lord that He acknowledges one Father and creator of the world and fashioner of humanity, the One who was proclaimed by the law and the prophets, while He knows no other—and that this one is really God over all. Further, He teaches that the adoption of children (which is eternal life) comes from this same Father, and that it takes place through Himself, since he confers it on all the righteous. (2:11,1)
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… If they had understood the Scriptures and been taught the truth, they would have known beyond doubt that God is not as people are, and that his thoughts are not like ours [Isa 55:8]. The Father of all is at a vast distance from those affections and passions which operate among us. He is a simple, uncompounded being, without separate parts, and entirely like and equal to Himself: He is wholly understanding, wholly spirit, wholly thought, wholly intelligence, wholly reason, wholly hearing, wholly seeing, wholly light, and the whole source of all that is good—as those who are religious and pious are accustomed to say about God. (2:13,3)
However, He is above all these properties, and therefore indescribable. For He who comprehends all things may well and properly be called “understanding,” but He is not therefore like human understanding; and He may most properly be termed “light,” but He is nothing like the light with which we are acquainted. And so, in every other regard, the Father of all is not at all like us in our human weakness. We speak of Him in these ways because of our love for him, but His greatness far surpasses our thoughts and words about Him.… (2:13,4)
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Enough has been said to show that their system is weak and untenable, utterly fanciful. As a common proverb says, “It is not necessary to drink the entire ocean to learn that its water is salty”.… (2:19,8)
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 Irenaeus has two goals which he is pursuing in parallel; the first is to affirm the truth of the Christian Faith, while the second is to deny and refute the errors that are being taught by Gnostic teachers. Many of the details of Gnostic teachings are strange and obscure and overtly foolish to our modern ears, but some are commonly and frequently repeated by those who seem to be intelligent. The idea that any creator god must have required tools to accomplish the creation, and that we can therefore prove or disprove his making of things by investigating whether this is actually possible, is a common one which we hear every time some scientist claims that he can disprove the Christian faith with science.)
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 11:17-37 (Jesus the Resurrection and the Life, Jesus Weeps)
Last time we saw Jesus informed that Lazarus, his friend, was very sick and near death. We saw the Lord wait two days before leaving to go and visit Lazarus, and then tell His disciples that Lazarus was dead, but that He was going to go and raise his friend. The disciples, knowing that the religious authorities in Judaea were determined to kill Jesus, were reluctant to see Him expose Himself (and them) to danger, but they went with Him regardless. This week, we will see what happens when Jesus arrives in Bethany.
Jesus the Resurrection and the Life
17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.”
23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”
Jesus Weeps
28 When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there.
32 When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 34 He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus began to weep. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
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 two things here. First, that Jesus knows exactly what He is going to do here, and even tells Martha what is going to happen, urging her to trust Him. She struggles somewhat with this, but confesses Him as the Messiah, the Son of God. Second, that even though Jesus knows what He is going to do, nonetheless He weeps. We are not told why He weeps, whether it is for the sorrow and loss of Lazarus’ sisters and friends, or for the foolishness and doubt of so many of the people there, or whether it is for the death of Lazarus himself, but regardless, it is necessary to note that even Jesus weeps in the face of death. It may be that His weeping is not least to give us permission to weep and to mourn in the face of the brokenness of the world, even as we trust Him and wait upon Him to make all things whole.)
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?