Day 1 (Monday)
Daniel 9:1-27 (Daniel’s Prayer, Prophecy of Seventy Weeks)
Last time we saw the first vision of Daniel, with the four beasts, the Ancient of Days, and the Son of Man. We discussed how this vision influenced and shaped the expectation of the coming Messiah, and would have been the context in which the people would have understood our Lord Jesus Christ speaking of Himself as the Son of Man. This time, we will see Daniel pray for his people, that the time of judgment might end, and we will see the answer that he receives.
Daniel’s Prayer for the People
9 In the first year of Darius son of Ahasuerus, by birth a Mede, who became king over the realm of the Chaldeans— 2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the Lord to the prophet Jeremiah, must be fulfilled for the devastation of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.
3 Then I turned to the Lord God, to seek an answer by prayer and supplication with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. 4 I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying,
“Ah, Lord, great and awesome God, keeping covenant and steadfast love with those who love you and keep your commandments, 5 we have sinned and done wrong, acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and ordinances. 6 We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our ancestors, and to all the people of the land.
7 “Righteousness is on your side, O Lord, but open shame, as at this day, falls on us, the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you. 8 Open shame, O Lord, falls on us, our kings, our officials, and our ancestors, because we have sinned against you. 9 To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him, 10 and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God by following his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.
11 “All Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, refusing to obey your voice. So the curse and the oath written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against you. 12 He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us and against our rulers, by bringing upon us a calamity so great that what has been done against Jerusalem has never before been done under the whole heaven. 13 Just as it is written in the law of Moses, all this calamity has come upon us. We did not entreat the favor of the Lord our God, turning from our iniquities and reflecting on his fidelity. 14 So the Lord kept watch over this calamity until he brought it upon us. Indeed, the Lord our God is right in all that he has done; for we have disobeyed his voice.
15 “And now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and made your name renowned even to this day—we have sinned, we have done wickedly. 16 O Lord, in view of all your righteous acts, let your anger and wrath, we pray, turn away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain; because of our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors, Jerusalem and your people have become a disgrace among all our neighbors.
17 Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his supplication, and for your own sake, Lord, let your face shine upon your desolated sanctuary. 18 Incline your ear, O my God, and hear. Open your eyes and look at our desolation and the city that bears your name. We do not present our supplication before you on the ground of our righteousness, but on the ground of your great mercies. 19 O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, listen and act and do not delay! For your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people bear your name!”
The Seventy Weeks
20 While I was speaking, and was praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God on behalf of the holy mountain of my God— 21 while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen before in a vision, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice. 22 He came and said to me, “Daniel, I have now come out to give you wisdom and understanding. 23 At the beginning of your supplications a word went out, and I have come to declare it, for you are greatly beloved. So consider the word and understand the vision:
24 “Seventy weeks are decreed for your people and your holy city: to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. 25 Know therefore and understand: from the time that the word went out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the time of an anointed prince, there shall be seven weeks; and for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with streets and moat, but in a troubled time.
26 After the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing, and the troops of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. 27 He shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall make sacrifice and offering cease; and in their place shall be an abomination that desolates, until the decreed end is poured out upon the desolator.”
952 words
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 of all the prayer of Daniel, and how it matches with the other prayers that we have seen, from Manasseh, from Mordecai and Esther, and of course from Azariah in the Fiery Furnace. Daniel confesses his own sins and the sins of all his people, and acknowledges the justice of the judgment that the Lord has brought upon them all, and then finally he prays for mercy, compassion, reconciliation, and restoration. He should next point out that the answer is given swiftly; Daniel does not have to wait for an answer, but the answer is that there will be a lengthy period of time until what he has prayed for will be granted in full. The answer to that prayer speaks of 70 weeks, or in Hebrew, 70 “sevens,” which are usually understood to refer to 7-year periods, and not to weeks. This means we are dealing with a period of 490 years that are to intervene until redemption comes. The question of the exact starting time of that period of 70 weeks is unclear, but what is very clear is that, with Daniel prophesying here sometime around the 520’s BC, and the Temple rebuilding beginning about that same time, anyone who read the book of Daniel at the time of Christ would see that the time prophesied had come, and many things of great import should be happening in Jerusalem. This is important context for us to understand as we read the Gospel accounts.)
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 8
Last time we continued to read some excerpts from Book 4 of 5 from “Against Heresies,” in which Irenaeus demonstrated from Scripture that God does not need our worship or even our existence, but instead has provided us with guidance and instruction, and even with life and being, out of self-emptying love for us, and that everything He commands us is for our good, that we may be partakers of His glory. This time, he will continue on this theme, and proceed to the question of how we worship God. We are drawing these selections from a recent condensation of this very substantial work by an academic named 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 4 (excerpts 3)
Book 4, Chapter 16
That is why Scripture says, “These words the Lord spoke with a loud voice to your whole assembly …, and he added no more” [Deut 5:22]: as I have already observed about this, he needed nothing from them. Again, Moses says, “So now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you? Only to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul” [Deut 10:12]. These things indeed made humankind glorious, by supplying what they needed—namely, God’s friendship; but they did not profit God at all, since he did not need humanity’s love.
The only way humans could enjoy the glory of God was by serving him; therefore, Moses said to them again, “Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days” [Deut 30:19–20]. Preparing human beings for this life, the Lord himself spoke the words of the Decalogue to all of them. In similar manner, they remain permanently with us, since they are extended and increased, but not abrogated, by his advent in the flesh. (4:16,4)
Book 4, Chapter 17
From all this it is clear that God did not seek sacrifices and burnt offerings from them, but faith and obedience and righteousness, all for their salvation. When teaching them his will in Hosea the prophet, God said, “I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt-offerings” [Hos 6:6]. Besides this, our Lord exhorted them to the same effect when he said, “But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless” [Matt 12:7]. Thus he testifies that the prophets preached the truth, but he accuses those who heard him of being foolish through their own fault. (4:17,4)
He also directed his disciples to offer God the first-fruits of what he had made—again, not as if he needed them, but so that the disciples might themselves be neither unfruitful nor ungrateful—when he took a created thing, bread, and gave thanks, and said, “This is my body” [Matt 26:26]. He took the cup, which is also part of the creation to which we belong, acknowledged it as his blood, and taught the new oblation of the new covenant—which the Church has received from the apostles and offers to God throughout all the world, who gives us the first-fruits of his own gifts in the New Testament to sustain us.
From among the twelve prophets, Malachi prophesied about this: “I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hands. For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts” [Mal 1:10–11]. In the plainest manner this indicates that the former people [the Jews] would cease to make offerings to God, but that in every place a pure sacrifice would be offered to him, and that his name would be glorified among the nations. (4:17,5)
Book 4, Chapter 18
The oblation of the Church, which the Lord gave instructions to be offered throughout all the world, is accounted with God a pure sacrifice and is acceptable to him—again, not that he needs a sacrifice from us, but so that the one who offers may be glorified in what he offers, if his gift is accepted. By the gift both honor and affection are shown forth towards the king.… (4:18,1)
Oblations, as a class in general, have not been set aside, for there were both oblations among the Jews and there are oblations among the Christians. The Jews had sacrifices; so does the Church. However, the species has been changed, since the offering is now made by freemen, not slaves. The Lord is always one and the same; however, the character of a servile oblation is different from that of freemen, so that the very oblations might indicate the liberty now granted.
With him nothing is without purpose or signification or design. This is why the Jews consecrated the tithes of their goods to him; whereas those who have received liberty set aside all their possessions for the Lord’s purposes, bestowing joyfully and freely the valuable portions of their property, since they expect to receive better things hereafter, like the poor widow who cast all her living into the treasury of God [Luke 21:4]. (4:18,2)
799 words
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 essential points of what St. Irenaeus is saying. First, that we offer physical things to God not because God needs them, but because in offering the things God has entrusted to us back to God, we enter into communion with Him, and the very purpose of our existence is fulfilled, and we are made bright and shining and filled with life. Second, that in the Old Covenant the offerings were designated as only a specific piece or part of the possessions of the people, a tithe or a tenth, but in the New Covenant we are called to offer our entire lives to the Lord, and to abide and commune with Him perfectly all the days of our life.)
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 13:36-38; 14:1-14 (Jesus Foretells Peter's Denial, Jesus the Way to the Father)
Last time, the Lord prophesied His betrayal, and even showed the disciples who it would be, giving the bread to Judas Iscariot and telling him to go and do quickly what he had determined to do. He then prophesied His imminent Passion once more, and then gave a new commandment to His disciples, that they should love one another just as He had loved them. This new commandment, then, is not new in the sense that it is different from what Jesus had said before, but in that it is a new commandment more and different than the commandments of the Law, and of course, the commandment toward which all of those commandments had been tending, so that in that law of love, all the other commandments are perfected.
Jesus Foretells Peter’s Denial
36 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered, “Where I am going, you cannot follow me now; but you will follow afterward.” 37 Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” 38 Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Very truly, I tell you, before the cock crows, you will have denied me three times.
Jesus the Way to the Father
14 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And you know the way to the place where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.
11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. 12 Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.
435 words
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 this discourse of the Lord’s is not just a monologue; the disciples are asking questions, and Jesus is answering. They are not understanding at the time, but St. John is showing us all the things that He said to them which, although they did not understand them at the time, they remembered and understood afterward. Especially we must note here how Jesus speaks about Himself and the Father; this is the essence of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, that the Son and the Holy Spirit are consubstantial, homoousios, of one essence or being with the Father, yet are distinct persons or hypostases. The Son, therefore, reveals the Father, because the Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father. But the Son is nonetheless distinct from the Father, so that we can and must affirm that the Father has not become Incarnate, but rather has revealed Himself to us in the Son, in our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is the express image of the Father’s glory.)
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?