The Holy Martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria (253-60)
Great Fast Day 36. Abstention from meat and foods that contain meat. According to liturgical prescriptions, the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated today.
Read
Sixth Hour – Isaiah 48:17-49:4
Vespers – Genesis 27:1-41; Proverbs 19:16-25
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Last week the famous Canon of St. Andrew was sung, and towards the end of that long prayer of repentance, the following troparion was recited: “I have set before you, O my soul, the names of people from the Old Testament to serve as examples. Imitate the God-pleasing deeds of the righteous, and flee from the sins of the wicked.” And that is a great principle to guide our reading of the Old Testament – imitate good and avoid evil.
But sometimes we wonder…who is good and who is evil? Today’s reading is pretty ambiguous on that point. Esau was a volatile and aggressive man, who spurned his birthright and married outside of the covenant people, but in today’s reading we can’t help feeling sorry for him – by all the standards of his time and culture, he should have received his father’s blessing. And Jacob, whose name sounds oddly similar to the Hebrew word for “cheat,” ends up looking pretty dishonest.
But the ambiguity of this passage points to another important theme in Scripture – God chooses little people, second-born sons, the “nobodys” of history, and makes them into vessels of his grace. Even when humans are unfaithful, God is willing to renew his covenants – ultimately, he will change Jacob’s name to Israel, and the trickster will become the father of a nation. After all, God’s love isn’t earned, or born into, or (despite Jacob’s story) taken by cunning – it’s a free gift, one that He gives to little sinners like us.