Welcome to the Daily Orthodox Scriptures, 2021. I am Fr. Alexis, and we are reading through the Scriptures each day of the year, using the Orthodox Study Bible. Today is Day 339 of our readings, and it’s December 5. So today we will be reading from Ezekiel 27; Psalm 121 and Psalm 122; Proverbs 27:16-20; and 1 John 2:28-3:24.

Today we will hear the lament for and the fall of the king of Tyre. Some of the Fathers saw this as a description of the fall of Satan and his angels. Whether it’s meant to be Satan or simply the king of Tyre, one thing is for sure: wealth and beauty and worldly perfection can lead to pride, which is the cause of our own fall from grace. Now to the readings; let’s begin.

Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyre, and you shall say to Tyre, situated at the entrance of the sea and market of the peoples on many coastlands, ‘Thus says the Lord to Tyre: “You say, ‘I clothed myself with beauty.’ In the heart of the sea, your sons clothed you with beauty for Beelim. Cedar from Senir was used by you in building. Boards of cypress timber were obtained from Lebanon to make masts of pinewood, and they made your oars out of wood from Bashan. They made your sacred objects from ivory, and your groves of houses out of wood from the coastlands of Cyprus. Your couch was made of fine embroidered linen from Egypt, to cover you with splendor, and to clothe you with blue and purple from the coasts of Elishah. They were your coverings. Your rulers were the inhabitants of Sidon, and the Aradians were your oarsmen. Your skilled men, O Tyre, were your pilots. The elders of Byblos and their wise men were in you. These men strengthened your counsel. All the ships of the sea and their oarsmen were yours, even to the far west.

“Persians, Lydians, and Libyans were in your army. Your warriors hung shields and helmets in you, and they gave you glory. The sons of the Aradians and your army were upon your walls. There were guards in your towers, and they hung their quivers on the walls all around your harbors. These sons completed your beauty.

“Those from Carthage were your merchants because of the abundance of all your strength. They furnished your marketplace with silver, gold, iron, tin, and lead. Greece and all the extended regions, these busied themselves in the trade of human lives and of vessels of copper for your markets. The house of Togarmah furnished your marketplace with horses and horsemen. The sons of Rodians were your traders. From the coastlands they multiplied your trade in ivory. To those who brought in the goods, you paid them wages in return from the abundant market of your mixed goods: myrrh and embroidered works from Tharsis, and even people as merchandise. Ramoth and Chorchor also traded with you. Judah and the sons of Israel, these traded with you. They traded in your marketplace the sale of wheat, myrrh, cassia, fine honey, oil, and resin. Damascus was a merchant in your marketplace because of the abundance of all your power: wine from Helbon and wool from Miletos. They also provided wine for your marketplace. From Asel, there came wrought iron and wheels for your market of mixed goods. Dedan was your merchant, with choice animals for chariots. Arabia and all the rulers of Kedar, these were your traders, bringing camels, rams, and lambs in which they traded with you. The merchants of Sheba and Raamah traded with you. They traded for your wares the choicest spices, all kinds of precious stones, and gold. Harran and Canneh also traded with you. Assyria and Chilmad were merchants in your marketplace, as they brought trade in blue cloth, in choice treasures bound with ropes, and in cypress wood. The ships of Tarshish were your merchants in abundance, with your market of mixed goods, and you were filled and heavily loaded in the heart of the sea.

“Your oarsmen brought you into many waters, but the south wind broke you to pieces in the heart of the sea. Your armies and the profits from your markets of mixed goods, your oarsmen and pilots, your counselors and merchandisers from your market of mixed goods, all your men of war who are in you, and the entire company in your midst will fall in the heart of the sea in the day of your fall. At the sound of your cry, your pilots will be greatly afraid. All who handle the oar, the mariners, and all the pilots of the sea will disembark from their ships and stand on the shore. They will cry out in pain over you. They will cry out bitterly, put dust on their heads, and spread ashes under themselves. Their sons will take up a song of grief and a lamentation for you, saying, ‘How great a profit did you find from the sea? The nations were filled from your abundance and the kings of the earth were enriched from your market of mixed goods. Now you are broken to pieces in the sea, in the depth of water. Your market of mixed goods and all your assembly fell in your midst, along with all your oarsmen. All the inhabitants of the coastlands are shocked over you. Their kings are greatly astonished, and their faces are covered with tears. The merchants from the nations hiss at you, for destruction has come about, and you will be no more forever.’ ” ’ ”

I was glad when they said to me,
“Let us go into the house of the Lord.’
Our feet stand in your courts, O Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is built as a city
Whose compactness is complete.
There the tribes went up,
The tribes of the Lord, a testimony to Israel,
To give thanks to the name of the Lord.
For thrones sat there for judgment,
Thrones over the house of David.
Ask now for things regarding the peace of Jerusalem,
And there is prosperity for those who love you;
Let there now be peace in your power
And prosperity in your citadels.
For the sake of my brothers and my neighbors,
I indeed spoke peace concerning you;
For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,
I sought good things for you.

I lift my eyes to you,
Who dwell in heaven.
Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hands of their masters,
As the eyes of the maidservant look to the hands of her mistress,
So our eyes look to the Lord our God
Until he shall have compassion on us.
Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us,
For we are greatly filled with contempt;
Our soul is greatly filled with it.
We are a disgrace to those who prosper,
And a contempt to the arrogant.

The north wind is a harsh wind,
And a prosperous man is called harsh.
Iron sharpens iron,
And a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.
Whoever plants a fig tree will eat its fruit,
And whoever guards his own master will be honored.
As faces are not like other faces,
So neither are the hearts of men.
Hades and destruction are not satiated;
In like manner the eyes of men are also insatiable.

And now, little children, abide in him, that when he appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of him. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. And you know that he was manifested to take away our sins, and in him there is no sin. Whoever abides in him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen him nor known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for his seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.

In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous. Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

By this we know love, because he laid down his life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment: that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as he gave us commandment.

Now he who keeps his commandments abides in him, and he in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

As he does in his gospel, John focuses a great deal on love in this epistle. It’s by love that we are recognized to be disciples of Christ, and therefore hatred has no place in the life of a Christian. We just heard “whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” St. John Cassian wrote this commentary on that verse, emphasizing the importance of our inner state, not only our outward actions. This is from St. John Cassian

If, then, we wish to receive the Lord’s blessings, we should restrain not only the outward expression of anger but also angry thoughts. More beneficial than controlling our tongue in a moment of anger and refraining from angry words is purifying our heart from rancor and not harboring malicious thoughts against our brethren. The Gospel teaches us to cut off the roots of our sins and not merely their fruits. When we have dug the root of anger out of our heart, we will no longer act with hatred or envy. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, for he kills him with the hatred in his mind. The blood of a man who has been slain by the sword can be seen by men, but blood shed by the hatred in the mind is seen by God, who rewards each man with punishment or a crown, not only for his acts but for his thoughts and intentions as well.

As God himself says through the Prophet, “Behold, I am coming to reward them according to their actions and their thoughts.” And the Apostle says, “And their thoughts accuse or else excuse them in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men.” The Lord himself teaches us to put aside all anger when he says, “Whoever is angry with his brother shall be in danger of judgment.” This is the text of the best manuscripts, for it is clear from the purpose of Scripture in this context that the words “without a cause” were added later. The Lord’s intention is that we should remove the root of anger, its spark, so to speak, in whatever way we can, and not keep even a single pretext for anger in our hearts. Otherwise, we will be stirred to anger, initially for what appears to be a good reason, and then find that our incensive power is totally out of control.

So that was St. John Cassian, and when he speaks of the “incensive power,” he speaks about that part of our soul that can get angry, but God has meant that type of anger to be used for good purposes, for instance, anger at our own sins, so that we might be able to change and move in the correct direction. But our anger is not to be directed outward. When it’s directed outward, though not for constructive reasons, that’s when it becomes dangerous. Then we see it turning into hatred and resentment. This is what we must avoid.

I am Fr. Alexis, and remember: Christ is in our midst!