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 334 of our readings, and it’s November 30. So today we will be reading from Ezekiel 22; Psalm 118:113-128; Proverbs 26:18-23; and 2 Peter 1.

We will begin the second letter to Peter today. It seems that Peter wrote this second letter from prison in Rome to Gentiles, former pagans. This letter encourages the faithful to remain true to the Christian doctrine in the midst of false teachings. But we will begin with our Old Testament reading from Ezekiel. Now to the readings. Let’s begin.

Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ” As for you, son of man, will you judge the city of blood? Show her all her lawlessness. You will say, ‘Thus says the Lord and Master: “O city that sheds blood in her midst—her time has come—and that makes inventions against herself, so as to defile herself with their blood you shed, you fell away, and in the inventions you made you defiled yourself, and caused your days to draw near; and you have come to the end of your years; therefore, I made you a disgrace to the nations and a mockery to all countries near you and those far away from you. They will mock at you, saying, ‘She is abominable and unclean, and great is her lawlessness!’ Behold, the leaders of the house conspired together within you, each with his relatives, to shed blood. Within you they speak evil of father and mother, and behave unjustly toward the resident alien. Within you they oppress the orphan, and within you, the widow. Within you they despise my holy things, and within you they desecrate my sabbaths. Within you men are robbers that shed blood within you, and eat on the mountains within you. They do unholy things in your midst. Within you they uncover the father’s shame, and within you violate women set apart during their impurity. One man acts lawlessly with his neighbor’s wife; another defiles his daughter-in-law in ungodliness; and within you another violates his sister, his father’s daughter. Within you they accept gifts so as to shed blood. Within you they receive interest and unjust gains, and by oppression you bring your evil to the full. But you forgot me,” says the Lord.

“Therefore, if I strike my hands against the evils you bring to the full—against the things you are doing—and against the bloodshed occurring in your midst, will your heart endure, will your hands remain strong in the days I deal with you? I, the Lord, have spoken, and will do it. I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you in the countries; and your uncleanness will cease among you. I shall make the Gentiles the owners of your inheritance. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.” ’ “

Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Son of man, behold, the house of Israel is mixed before me—they are altogether mixed—the house is mixed together in the midst of the silver, with bronze, iron, tin, and lead. Therefore thus says the Lord: ‘Because all of you are one mixture, therefore, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem, as men gather silver, bronze, iron, tin, and lead into the midst of a furnace, to blow fire on it, to cast it like metal into a mold. Thus I shall gather you in my wrath, and bring you together and cast you. I shall blow on you with the fire of my wrath and cast you in her midst. As silver is cast into a mold in the midst of a furnace, so shall you be cast in her midst. Then you shall know that I, the Lord, have poured out my anger upon you.’ ”

Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Son of man, say to her, ‘You are the land not rained on, neither has rain come upon you in the day of wrath.’ Her leaders are like roaring lions seizing prey, who devour souls by domination and receive honors in wrongdoing; and your widows multiply in your midst. Her priests reject my law and desecrate my holy things. They no longer distinguish between the holy and the profane, nor between the unclean and the clean. They have hidden their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am desecrated in their midst. Her rulers in her midst are like wolves seizing their prey, so as to shed blood and exploit others for greed. Her prophets who anoint them will fall because they see worthless and false prophecies, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord,’ but the Lord has not spoken, and because they oppress the people of the land in wrongdoing, commit robbery, oppress the poor and needy, and do not treat the resident alien with upright judgment. So I sought for a man among them who would conduct himself rightly and stand before me perfectly at all times in the land, so as not to wipe her out completely; but I did not find him. Therefore I poured out my anger in the fire of my wrath to finish them, and I recompensed their ways on their heads,” says the Lord and Master.

Transgressors I hate,
But I love your law.
You are my helper and my protector;
I hope in your word.
Turn away from me, you evildoers,
And I shall search out the commandments of my God.
Uphold me according to your teaching, and give me life;
And may you not disappoint my expectation.
Help me, and I shall be saved;
And I shall meditate always in your ordinances.
You set at naught all who departed from your ordinances,
For their thought is unrighteous.
I counted as transgressors all the sinners of the earth;
For this reason I always love your testimonies.
Nail my flesh with the fear of you,
For I fear you because of your judgments.
I work judgment and righteousness;
Do not deliver me to those who wrong me.
Take your servant to that which is good;
Do not let the arrogant falsely accuse me.
My eyes strained to look at your salvation
And at the teaching of your righteousness.
Deal with your servant according to your mercy
And teach me your ordinances.
I am your servant; cause me to understand,
And I shall know your testimonies.
It is time for the Lord to act;
They broke your law.
For this reason I love your commandments
More than gold and topaz.
Therefore I directed myself to all your commandments;
I hated every unrighteous way.

As he who lays hold of a dog’s tail,
So is he who is the mouthpiece of another’s cause.
As those who need correction speak to others,
He who first replies to the word shall be tripped up,
So are all who set a trap for their own friends;
But when they are discovered, they say, “I did it in jest.”
A fire rages among many trees,
But where there is no disagreement, contention is at rest.
As a fireplace is for coals and wood for a fire,
So a contentious man kindles violence.
The words of a talebearer are mild
And they strike into the innermost affections.

Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me. Moreover I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease.

For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to him from the excellent glory: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain. And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, a which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

In our Christian life, we become partakers of the divine nature, as Peter wrote in today’s passage. We participate by grace in the divinity which is in Christ by nature. In the Orthodox Church, we call this theosis or deification. St. Maximus the Confessor said that this is a total participation in Jesus Christ. If we are looking at our faith in medical terms, one might say that theosis is the point in our Christian walk when we become healed.

The Fathers of the Church have talked about a three-fold path, three steps that we follow as we move in our journey of salvation. The first is purification; the second illumination; and the third theosis. Kyriakos Markides describes this well in his book The Mountain of Silence; you should check it out. But let me say something briefly.

The first step, purification, is where we will spend most of our life; perhaps even all of our life. This first step is the process of overcoming two major obstacles in our return to God. The first obstacle is our passions and worldly desires. This obstacle keeps our hearts attached to the world. The second obstacle is our reliance on our senses and rational intellect, believing that it’s only with the mind that we can understand reality. Focusing on the world in this way, we lose our ability to see heaven. There’s a split between heaven and earth, and that needs to be healed. We need to see heaven again, and the way that the Church helps us to achieve this is through ascesis or spiritual exercise. Practices such as fasting, prayer, and intentional humility help us here. Our worldly difficulties must be seen as opportunities to grow in humility. This is the step of purification.

The second step, illumination, is when the mind and heart are filled with the reality of God. It might happen in brief moments. This is nothing that we can achieve by our own will. It is a gift of God and a consequence of purification. Purification is intentional; illumination is a gift. When a person is illumined, they see clearly, and God’s wisdom is revealed.

The third step is theosis. This is our destination: partaking through grace of divinity. The person does not become absorbed in God when they experience theosis so as to lose the meaning of one’s personhood, but the person is fulfilled in the presence of God with the meaning of personhood as it was intended for him or her. This is where we are headed to be fully ourselves in God’s presence. Our life will be mostly focused on the first stage, purification. The spiritual practices of the Church—fasting, prayer, compassion, and works of love—are given as a gift for this part of the journey, but we should know that we are headed for theosis: partaking of the divine nature.

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