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 52 of our readings, and it’s February 21. So today we will be reading from Exodus 2; Psalm 47; Proverbs 9:21-25; and Mark 3:1-19.

In the first chapter of Exodus, we learned how the children of Israel have grown into a very large people over the 400 years since Joseph’s death. The Egyptians became fearful of their numbers and decided to crush them through slavery and the killing of their male children. So this is what’s going on when we are introduced to the next great character of the Bible: Moses. Now to the readings; let’s begin.

Now a man of the house of Levi went and took as wife a daughter of Levi. So the woman conceived and bore a son; and seeing he was a beautiful child, they hid him three months. But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes, daubed it with asphalt, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river’s bank. Now his sister was watching from a distance to learn what would be done with him.

Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, and her maidens walked along the riverside; and seeing the ark among the reeds, she sent a maid to get it. So when she opened the ark, she saw the child crying, and the daughter of Pharaoh had compassion on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?” So Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” Then the maiden went and called the child’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter then said to her, “Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. Now when the boy was grown, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son; and she called his name Moses, saying, “Because I drew him out of the water.”

Thus it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out to his brethren and saw their burdens. He also saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren of the sons of Israel. So he looked this way and that, and when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. When he went out the second day, he saw two Hebrew men fighting, and he said to the one who did the wrong, “Why are you hitting your neighbor?” He replied, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” So Moses was alarmed and said, “Surely this thing is known.” Thus when Pharaoh heard this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian; and he sat down by a well.

Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, who fed the sheep of their father Jethro; and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. Then the shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock. When they came to Reuel their father, he said to them, “How is it you came so soon today?” They replied, “An Egyptian delivered us from the shepherds; and he also drew enough water for us and watered our sheep.” So he said to his daughters, “And where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.” Then Moses dwelt with the man, and he gave Zipporah his daughter to Moses. So the woman conceived and bore Moses a son, and he called his name Gershom; for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.”

Now in the course of time, it happened that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of their labors and cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the labors. So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then God looked upon the children of Israel and was made known to them.

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised
In the city of our God, in His holy mountain,
Well-rooted in joy throughout the earth,
The mountains of Zion, the sides of the north,
The city of the great King;
God is known in her palaces
When He helps her.
For behold, the kings assembled;
They came together;
They saw her; thus they marveled;
They were troubled; they were shaken;
Trembling laid hold of them;
There were labor pains, like a woman giving birth.
You shall wreck the ships of Tarshish with a violent wind.
As we heard, so we saw
In the city of the Lord of hosts,
In the city of our God;
God established her forever.

We pondered Your mercy, O God,
In the midst of Your temple.
According to Your name, O God,
So is Your praise to the ends of the earth;
Your right hand is full of righteousness.
Let Mount Zion be glad;
Let the daughters of Judah greatly rejoice
Because of Your judgments, O Lord.
Encircle Zion and embrace her;
Describe her towers in detail;
Set your hearts on her power
And observe her palaces,
That you may describe them to another generation.
For He is God, our God,
Forever and unto ages of ages;
He will shepherd us unto the ages.

But he does not know that the inhabitants of the earth perish beside her,
And he happens upon a snare of Hades.
But hurry off, do not continue in that place,
Neither set your eye toward her;
For so you shall pass through strange water
And cross beyond a strange river;
And keep away from strange water,
And do not drink from a strange fountain;
That you may live a long time And add years of life to yourself.

And He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand. So they watched Him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. And He said to the man who had the withered hand, “Step forward.” Then He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they kept silent. And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other. Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him.

But Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the sea. And a great multitude from Galilee followed Him, and from Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea and beyond the Jordan; and those from Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they heard how many things He was doing, came to Him. So He told His disciples that a small boat should be kept ready for Him because of the multitude, lest they should crush Him. For He healed many, so that as many as had afflictions pressed about Him to touch Him. And the unclean spirits, whenever they saw Him, fell down before Him and cried out, saying, “You are the Son of God.” But He sternly warned them that they should not make Him known.

And He went up on the mountain and called to Him those He Himself wanted. And they came to Him. Then He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons: Simon, to whom He gave the name Peter; James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James, to whom He gave the name Boanerges, that is, “Sons of Thunder”; Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Canaanite; and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him. And they went into a house.

When we think of emotions or feelings of Jesus, we usually think of his love and his compassion, but there’s also anger. We read today that when the people in the synagogue refused to answer his question about whether it was lawful to do good on the Sabbath, which in this case meant healing the man with the withered hand, he expressed anger. “He had looked around them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts.” So we see for Jesus this anger was also an expression of grief, a grief at their hardness of hearts, a grief at their refusal to recognize God’s work in their midst, a grief that the well-being of their brother was not the basis of their understanding of the Law. It’s not an anger with them as much as it is an anger at the sin which holds them bound, bound and unable to see the beauty of this moment of healing.

For us, our own healing means becoming more like Christ, and that means cultivating Christ-like feelings and emotions. We’re called to be patient, to be meek and gentle, but we also must have an anger towards that which is an obstacle to growing closer to Christ. We must learn to be angry at our sins. We should not excuse our sins, even worse should we notice the sins of others but not our own. So instead of the phrase, “Love the sinner and hate the sin,” I’d prefer, “Love the sinner and hate my own sin.”

When we think of Peter’s denial of Jesus, don’t hate Peter. And really, don’t condemn him for denying Christ. What we should be doing is hating our own denying of Christ that we do in so many ways. There is darkness in the world. There’s darkness in our brothers and sisters. But what should truly irk us—what should truly irk me—is the darkness within myself. This is the area I must focus on. This is the area to bring the light of Christ. Noticing it in other places only allows me to not notice it in myself.

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