I. 50 Days of Readings on the Holy Spirit: Pentateuch-Matthew
[The Descent of the Holy Spirit
At the top of the icon are the images of Peter and the Apostle Paul demonstrating the unity through Jesus in the Holy Spirit Who unites the OT & NT, the Jew & Gentile, Isreal & the cosmos. The Apostles are seated in a semi-circle, representing a unity and harmony similar to that found in Icons of the Holy Trinity. This semi- as opposed to a full circle depicts is used so as to draw us, the observes, into that same unity.
The source of the unity is in another semi-circle at the top of the icon, showing the descent of the Holy Spirit. From the blue semi-circle (c.a. mandorlas) a single ray of light for each of those gathered shines down to illumine them with a tongues of fire descending upon each of the Apostles.
At the bottom of the Icon is another semi-circle, showing an old king against a dark background. He is often named as Kosmos and represents the world. He is crowned as a symbol of earthly authority – i.e. he represents all the peoples of the world, rather than the whole of creation. He is situated “in darkness and the shadow of death” (Luke 1:79), and is aged to show the corruptibility of the world. Yet he also holds a blanket containing scrolls representing Apostolic teaching.
Though in darkness, the descent of the Holy Spirit has not only reached the Apostles, but also all corners of the world into which the Apostles will preach the Gospel. The Empty Seat, a striking aspect of the Pentecost Icon is the empty space at the centre, between the Apostles Peter and Paul. This central seat is a place of honour, the “Teacher’s Seat” around which the Apostles are gathered. Why is it empty? Because it is the seat in which Christ should be seated, Who has ascended physically into Heaven. Yet Jesus promised many times that though He would leave them physically, He would instead give to them the Holy Spirit as a Comforter, Advocate, and Guide. This promise was first realized at Pentecost, and is still true today. Therefore, the Icon, which is also an Icon of the Church, shows the Apostles gathered in unity, sustained by the power of the Holy Spirit, surrounding Christ Who is invisibly present. The world, Cosmos, is at their feet, ready and waiting to be harvested through the passing on of Christ’s teaching.]
Gen 1 -John 1
The Holy Spirit reveals Jesus; for it is in Jesus that the Eternal God perfectly interrelates with mankind. In Him heaven and earth are united; Eternity is bound together with the present moment; and in Him the Eternal God is forever united with mankind.
In the beginning this was so, the Holy Spirit being present in the very conception of the life of the cosmos (Gen 1:2), creating man through Jesus (Jn 1:1-3) to extend His Eternal Kingdom throughout all the world (Gen 1:27-28). Rightly, he was called by the Fathers of the Church the “Lord and giver of life.”
Gen 3 - John 3
When man fell, this union was severed. Life became death; order chaos; existence a living curse. Life in the Presence of JHWH was lost. The fullness of its union had to be painfully relearnt by God’s exiled people; re-experienced in ways that took them beyond the confines of this Fallen Age. These Realities the Spirit began to reveal to the Patriarchs in the Covenants—first Noahaic, then Abrahamic then Mosaic. Salvation from cosmic Judgment; life by faith; obedience to the Torah, all looking towards man’s return to the New Eden of God’s abiding Presence.
Yet the history of Israel showed that the people of God cannot reenter Eden. Eden must be recreated; And man recreated for it; his heart, spirit, soul reformed (Ezek 36:25-28) under a New Covenant (Jer 31:31-34). This reality Jesus speaks of as being “born again”, “born from above” (γεννηθῇ ἄνωθεν)—that they can first “see” the Reality of the Kingdom of God” (Jn 1:3), then being “born by water and by the Spirit” they can then “enter the Kingdom of God” (Jn 1:5).
The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament conformed Israel into the image of JHWH (Gen 1:27) that they as His Living icons might extend His Reign throughout the entire cosmos (Gen 1:28)
In the New Testament, the image of JHWH is fully revealed and perfected in Jesus, and extended to His people by the Spirit who fills them up with the pneumatized Reality of the ascended Christ (Mt 5:48; I Pet 1:14-16; Rom 8:29; 12:1-2). They truly become His Body.” And his “divine life” which is “extended from His body into those who believe” becomes “the Church..”
I. THE PENTATEUCH & GOSPEL OF MATTHEW
The readings combine the Pentateuch with the Gospel of Matthew as it stands as the which most Hebraic of the Gospels, being itself structured into five sections of narrative and teaching with Christ pictured as the new Moses who comes out of Egypt, ascending a mountain to give His people the new Law... Interspersed within the NT readings are various passages from the Epistles.
Day 1
The Spirit in Genesis:
Part I. Creation and Recreation
Gen 1-2
The Spirit in Creation (“The Spirit [ruach] hovered over the waters”)
Mt 1-2
Conception of the promised Seed of New Creation by the Spirit
Day 2
Gen 3-4
Resisting the Spirit: The Fall
Mt 3-4
Baptism by the Spirit; The driving out by the Spirit to confront the “principalities and powers.”
Day 3
Gen 6-7
Resisting the Spirit: The Flood
Mt 5-6
The Sermon on the Mount: Spirit-filled interpretation, correction and fulfillment of the OT Torah
Day 4
Gen 8-9
The Spirit in Recreation (“God made His Ruach to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged”)
Mt 7-8
The Outworking and Application of New Creational Life in Jesus
Day 5
Part II. Hearing and Obeying:
The initiation of the Covenant among the Patriarchs through vital encounters/struggling/testing/wrestling/blessing as the Kingdom is inaugurated in the Grace of Obedience in the Messianic Line
Gen 11:1-9
Resisting the Spirit, Part II: Babel & The Division of Tongues (The antitype of Pentecost)
Gen 11:27-12:4
Kingdom Unity Coming in the Messianic Seed
Gen 13, 15 Abraham
The Promise sealed in the Covenant with the replanting of the Messianic Line within the borders of Eden (15:18)
&
Mt 9-10
Vital faith in the King unto forgiveness and New Creational Realities (“new wineskins”); The actions (9:35-36) and prayer of the King (9:37) for extension of His Kingdom
->
The “Spirit of the Father” given for this to be so
Day 6
Gen 16-17
Birth in the flesh (11 yrs after the Promise) then in the Spirit (25 yrs afterwards) with the sign of the Covenant of New Creation being sealed “in the flesh” of the Messianic seed through circumcision “on the eighth day”
&
Mt 11, Lk 16
Rom 4
“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.”
When the Gospel of the Kingdom is preached, it is worked out in our hearts in violent terms (Mt 11:15-> Mt 7:13-14; Acts 14:22). That is to say, for us to move beyond religion as a game (Mt 11:16-18), breaking out of the deceptions and false projections of life in the Fallen Age, we must undergo the highest level of interior struggle. Such struggle becomes possible only as the Spirit works in us deep repentance/matanoia (11:20-24)—such that we can “force our way” with great conflict out of the deceptions of false reality into the Glorious Reality of the Eternal Kingdom in and Through the Son (11:25-27), where the yoke we bear becomes “easy” (lit. “that which is furnished for the exact right purpose”; i.e. exactly what we need at exactly the right time) and His “burden light” (11:28-30).
Day 7
Gen 21:1-12; Gen 22:1-18
The Birth; The Testing; The Blessing
&
Mt 13 The Parables of the Kingdom
Gal 3:1-4:6 The Spirit of the Son making these Realities so
Gal 4:21-31 The two sons of Abraham as an allegory, the one “according to the flesh” “gendring bondage”; the other conceived in freedom and born “through the Promise”
Day 8
Focus: Prayer and its extended Struggle through which New Creational Realities penetrate this Fallen Age
Gen 24:1-27, 37-40; 25:19-26;
Gen 26:1-5;
Gen 27:24-29
Isaac: Faithful Obedience of a Servant with Answered Prayer;
Isaac’s 20 year pathway of prayer bringing forth Covenantal Blessing
+
Gen 28, 32
Jacob’s Ladder; Jacob’s Great Struggle
&
Mt 14
The Death of the forerunner; the extension of the Kingdom with a focus on sacramental prayer in the life of Jesus both in public (14:19—“looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples...”) and in private (14:23 And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray”).
This prayer, permeating the whole of Jesus’ life, literally changes the structures of reality (the bread [14:21-22]; the structure of water [14:25-32, “Do not be afraid, I AM”] the structures of the human body [14:34-36].
Day 9
Gen 37, 39, 41
Joseph (as a Type of Christ): His Betrayal, Suffering, Exile-> Salvation
“And the Lord was with Joseph” as one “in whom is the Spirit of God”
&
Mt 15
Purity of heart and humility in prayer
Macarius the Great (mirroring Mt 15:21-28)
Abba Macarius was asked, ‘How should one pray?’ The old man said, ‘There is no need at all too make long discourses; it is enough to stretch out one’s hands and say, “Lord, as you will, and as you know, have mercy.”
And if the conflict grows fiercer say, “Lord, help!” He knows very well what we need and shows us his mercy.’
Gen 48:15-49:28
The Blessing upon Joseph and his sons with the prophecy “of the last days”
Day 10
The Spirit in Exodus:
Redemption of the people of God into a Kingdom of Priests formed by the Torah, led by the Priesthood and opened up to the Glory of JHWH in the Tabernacle
Ex 2:23-3:22; Ex 7:1-5; Ex 12
Deliverance appointed through JHWH in the Passover Lamb
&
Mt 16
Redemption not through “doctrine” divorced from life (16:12) but through vital faith in Christ, the Lamb, “the Son of the living God”, worked out in our lives as we take up His Cross
&
II Cor 4
Day 11
Ex 13:21-15:18
The Pillar of Fire and the Cloud of the Lord’s Presence leading His people into the “mountain of His inheritance”; into the “Sanctuary of the Lord”
&
Mt 17
The Transfiguration of Jesus, The Tabernacle of New Creation
Our opening to New Creational Realities through faith made real by prayer and fasting
&
II Cor 5
The New Creation working in “earthen vessels”
Day 12
Ex 19:1-9
The call of a “Kingdom of Priests”
Ex 24:5-10
Given the Law then sprinkled with the “Blood of the Covenant”
Ex 25:1-9
“And let them make Me a Sanctuary that I may dwell among them”
Ex 35:1-19
Ex 36:1-5
With the “Spirit of God” moving the people to give unto the work of the Tabernacle then filling them up with “wisdom and understanding” to complete it
Ex 40:16->34-38
Such that the Glory of the Lord day and night would fill the Tabernacle by cloud and fire directing His people forward into the Promised Land
&
Mt 18
Fellowship within the Kingdom community begun in humility (18:1-7), upheld in self-denial (18:8-9) and bound together by reconciliation in Christ and continual forgiveness “from the heart” (18:10-35), such that the Kingdom comes in them that through reconciliation “whatsoever” they “bind on earth” shall be “bound in Heaven” and “whatsoever” they “loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven.”
Day 13
The Spirit in Leviticus:
The Fire, Oil & Blood in the Priestly Service of the Tabernacle unto the Cleansing of God’s People
Lev 6:8-13, 8:1-36, 9:1-4, 22-24
The Continual Fire on the Altar
The Spirit of Anointing with Oil “on the Eighth Day” (The Day of New Creation, Jn 20:1)
Lev 14:1-32
Anointing & Cleansing from leprosy (the physical representation of the inner working of sin) with Oil & Blood, again, “on the Eighth Day”
&
Mt 19
Kingdom Unity
Kingdom Treasure
(See Basil’s Sermon to the Rich:
https://bekkos.wordpress.com/st-basils-sermon-to-the-rich/)
Day 14
Lev 16
Atonement (Yom Kippur)
Lev 18:1-5; 19:1-18
Cleansing unto holiness of life
In fulfillment of the 10 commandments whose anchor is love
&
Mt 20
Kingdom Work and Economics (20:1-19) through Baptism into Christ’s Death and Resurrection (20-23): The last shall be first and the first last; the great as the servant; the chief as the slave (24-28)
Gal 5:5-6, 13-18
Walking “in the Spirit” through “faith which works by love”
Day 15
Lev 23
New Creation built into the Liturgical Calendar
Lev 24:1-4
The Oil & Lamps burning
Lev 25
The Sabbatical & Jubilee Years
&
Mt 21
The Coming of the King, The Prophet & The Priest
Kingdom Faith; Kingdom Repentance; Kingdom Fruits
&
Gal 6
The path of the “spiritual” (πνευματικοὶ);
Life sown in the Spirit;
The Cross and New Creation
Day 16
The Spirit in Numbers:
The Formation then Reformation of True Israel for the Extension of God’s Kingdom Through Resistance, Rebellion & Judgment
The Start:
Num 1:1-4, 47-54; 2:17
The Numbering and arrangement of the first generation army with the Levites at the center situated around the Tabernacle (the core of God’s Kingdom Presence)
Num 6:22-27
The Blessing of the High Priest upon His People
Num 9
The Passover renewed with the Cloud & Fire of God’s Presence guiding His people day and night
Num 10:33-36
The Liturgy of setting forth into the Promised Land
&
Mt 22:1-14
The Parable of the Marriage Feast—“Many are called but few are chosen”
+
Ps 95
”Today, if you will hear His Voice, harden not your hearts”
Day 17
Num 11
Immediate Rebellion of the First Generation Army with the Fires & Plagues of Judgment
Total Dejection at the incapacity to bring the Kingdom of God here and now
-> The Pouring out of the Spirit onto the Seventy Elders—
“Oh, that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!”
+
Num 13:1-2, 27-33; 14:1-45
Rebellion and refusal to enter the Promised Land in obedience;
Attempts to enter in the flesh
Num 15:37-41
In the midst of rebellion, Commandments for renewal displayed in “fringes and ribbons of blue” (picturing the priesthood of all believers: Tekeleth [Ex 25:4; 26:1, 4; 26:31, 36; Rx 27:16-> Ex 28:5, 6, 8, 15, 28, 31, 33, 37, etc.
Fringes represent the Holiness of God and the Glory of the Divine Presence which comes down to man in the saving Covenant of JHWH and finds its fulfillment in the Messiah. This is the thread of meaning which winds its way through the Pentateuch with the original distinct commandments (Gĕdil: Deut 22:11-12; Tzitzit: Num 15:37-38) then the relation to the Priesthood (Tĕkeleth, Ex 25-26, 28), the Histories with the connection to the Temple (I Ki 7:17), the Prophets to the Glory of God in the Temple (Ezek 8:3) and the extension of the Temple Glory to the nations (Zech 8:23), and finally into the Gospels (κράσπεδον: Mt 9:20; Lk 8:43-44-> Mk 6:56; Mt 14:36) where the saving Covenantal Presence of the Glory of God is fulfilled in the life of Jesus.
&
Mt 22:15-46
The Resistance of the Pharisees to the coming of God’s Kingdom
+
Heb 3-4
Psalm 95 exegeted, “Wherefore the Holy Spirit says…”
Day 18
Num 20:1-13
Rebellion over water: Moses and Meribah
Num 21:1-9
Rebellion over bread and water; Fiery Serpants
Num 23-24
The Spirit of God in the mouth of a false prophet
&
Mt 23
Jesus exposé and condemnation of Pharisaical Christianity
+
I Cor 10:1-12
“Our fathers” who “ate of the same spiritual meat and drank of the same spiritual drink” were “overthrown in the wilderness”
Day 19
Num 26:1-4; 64-65
The Numbering of the Second Generation Army
Num 27:12-23
Joshua, “a man in whom is the Spirit”, chosen as leader
Num 28
The Renewal of the Liturgical Year in the Daily Offering and the Annual Feasts
Num 33:50-56
The Final Command for Conquest
&
Mt 24-25
Jesus, the New Temple
Through Great Tribulation drawing us into the Glory of His Eternal Kingdom
Day 20
The Spirit in Deuteronomy:
Delivering God’s people into the life of New Creational wisdom and understanding given in the “statutes and commandments” of JHWH to guide His people into life in the Promised Land
Deut 1:1-38
The Spirit’s Work in the First Generation:
The call, the provision and the rebellion as the Spirit works amidst resistance and unbelief:
“Yet, for all that, you did not believe the Lord your God, Who went in the way before you to search out a place for you to pitch your tents, to show you the way you should go, in the fire by night and in the cloud by day”
Deut 2:14-16
The judgment upon the first generation’s unbelief (Heb 3:16-19)
->
Deut 4:1-10, 32-40
The Spirit’s Work in the Second Generation:
Delivering God’s people into the life of New Creational wisdom and understanding given in the “statutes and commandments” of JHWH to guide His people into life in the Promised Land
Deut 5:4-5, 22, 29
The Commandments given from the “midst of fire” through a mediator
The Desire—
“Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!”
&
Mt 26:1-29
The Passover inaugurated in Christ’s Betrayal; revealed in the Eucharist—
The Feast of New Creation which we partake of by faith with obedience
I Cor 11:17-12:13
The Lord’s Supper & our Baptism into the Unity of the Body by the Spirit
Day 21
Deut 6-7
The Shema of Israel embedded in the life of families, equipping those whom God loves to enter and flourish in the Promised Land
Deut 8:1-9:6
The pathway of testing and proving to reveal the heart and prepare it for blessing
&
Mt 26:30-75
The Great trial and testing of Jesus
Heb 5:6-10
The Author of Eternal Salvation
Day 22
Deut 27-28
The Blessings and Cursings of the Covenant
Deut 30:11-20
Life and Death; Blessing and Cursing
&
Gal 3:10-14
Redemption from the Curses through Christ
Entrance into the Blessings in Christ with the “Promise of the Spirit through faith”
&
Mt 27
The Passion:
Christ taking upon Himself the Curses; opening us up to the Blessings of the Covenant in His Complete Obedience and Fulfillment to its demands
+
Heb 9
The Spirit in Jesus’ Passion:
“How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
Day 23
Deut 32:1-47
The Song of Moses, a microcosm of the Deuteronomic treaty and the life of Israel
34:4-9
The Promised Land
With Joshua leading them in the “Spirit of Wisdom”
&
Mt 28
The Resurrection
The Mountain
The Great Commission
+
Rev 15:1-4
The Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb