so also flesh must be cut away which is covering the heart. This Á-°foreskinÁ-? covering our
heart is our sins and sinful inclinations. The cutting away of these things can only be
accomplished with pain and with blood. The pain occurs because the soul is attached to
earthly things, and in the beginning, feels great sorrow when torn away from the earth.
Blood contains the essence of our life, it permeates all parts of our body. In giving our
blood we are giving our life.
The admonition to Á-°
be no more stiffneckedÁ-?
targets the greatest passion which
keeps us from true life and holiness: pride.
The last parable is used very commonly in the Vespers readings, for many Saints. An
interpretation of it is, as my old math textbooks used to say: Á-°left as an exercise to the
reader.Á-? Anybody what to take a crack at it?
Deuteronomy 1:8-11, 15-17 8
Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and
possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers, Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them.
9
And I
spake unto you at that time, saying, I am not able to bear you myself
alone:
10
The LORD your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this
day as the stars of heaven for multitude.
11
(The LORD God of your
fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are, and bless
you, as he hath promised you!)
15
So I took the chief of your tribes, wise
men, and known, and made them heads over you, captains over
thousands, and captains over hundreds, and captains over fifties, and
captains over tens, and officers among your tribes.
16
And I charged your
judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and
judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger
that is with him.
17
Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall
hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of
man; for the judgment is God's: and the cause that is too hard for you,
bring it unto me, and I will hear it.
Deuteronomy 10:14-2114
Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the
LORD's thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is.
15
Only the LORD
had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after
them, even you above all people, as it is this day.
16
Circumcise therefore
the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.
17
For the LORD
your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a
terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward:
18
He doth
execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the
stranger, in giving him food and raiment.
19
Love ye therefore the
stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.
20
Thou shalt fear the
LORD thy God; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and