Synaxarium
Daily Stories of the Saints.
Sat, 3rd September 2011 --- Misra 28, 1727 AM
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The Twenty-Eighth Day of the Blessed Month of Misra
Misra 28
Commemoration of the Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
On this day, the church celebrates the holy Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
1. Our father Abraham:
Who can describe the virtues of he who became father
to many nations? He believed in God, obeyed Him, and did not doubt His
promises. The Lord appeared to him in a vision at night and told him, "Get
out of your country, away from your family and from your father's house,
to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will
bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing." (Genesis
12:1-2) Then the Lord appeared to Abraham in the form of three men. He
welcomed them, for they were strangers, and God promised him the birth
of Isaac. Abraham was then one hundred years old; Sarah, his wife, was
advanced in age, and they believed the promise of God. When Isaac was born,
Abraham, his father, circumcised him on the eighth day of his birth. Although
he was sure that through his procreation all the nations of the earth would
be blessed, God told him, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom
you love, and offer him there as a burnt offering." He did not doubt the
promise of God. He began to offer his son as a sacrifice, confident that
God would raise him, and raise offspring through him. When he fulfilled
the sacrifice of Isaac by intention, God revealed his virtues to the generations
to come by saying, "By Myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you
have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son, in
blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your descendants
as the stars of the heaven." (Genesis 22:1-18) That was fulfilled and he
was called the father of Christ in flesh. (Luke 3:34) He departed in peace
when he was one hundred seventy-five years old.
May his prayers be with us. Amen.
2. Our father Isaac:
He was born by a divine promise, and he was perfect
in piety and obedience to God and to his father. He was willing to be sacrificed
by his father as an offering to God, although he was the son of the promise,
and his father begot him when he was one hundred years old. Isaac was not
a child then, for the Bible said, "So Abraham took the wood of the burnt
offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and went to the place which was
afar off." Some historians say that Isaac's age then was about thirty-seven
years old. He obeyed his father, and laid down his neck for slaying, but
the angel of the Lord ordered his father not to lay his hand on the lad.
As it was considered that Abraham had fulfilled the sacrifice of his son
by intention, it was also considered that Isaac was sacrificed by intention.
He suffered many tribulations and sorrows. God gave him two sons, Esau
and Jacob. Isaac loved Esau for his bravery. When Isaac was old and his
eyes were so dim that he could not see, he called Esau, his older son,
and said to him, "My son ... behold now, I am old. I do not know the day
of my death. Now therefore, please ... go out to the field and hunt game
for me. And make me savory food ... that I may eat, that my soul may bless
you before I die." Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to Esau his son.
She spoke to Jacob her son, saying, "... Go now to the flock and bring
me from there two choice kids of the goats, and I will make savory food
from them for your father, such as he loves ... that he may bless you before
his death." Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, "Look, Esau my brother is
a hairy man, and I am a smooth-skinned man. Perhaps my father will feel
me, and I shall seem to be a deceiver to him; and I shall bring a curse
on myself and not a blessing." But his mother said to him, "Let your curse
be on me, my son."
(Genesis 27:1-29) She did that by a divine inspiration.
Jacob did as his mother ordered him, and his father ate and blessed him.
Isaac departed in peace when he was one hundred eighty years old.
May his prayers be with us. Amen.
3. The father of the Tribes Jacob:
Esau, his brother, hated him for he took
the blessing of their father from him. Jacob feared Esau, and fled to Laban,
his uncle. He shepherded Laban's sheep for seven years and Laban gave Jacob
his daughter, Leah, in marriage. Then Jacob served another seven years,
and Laban gave him his second daughter, Rachel, in marriage.
(Genesis 29:15-30)
Then Laban, his uncle, told him, "The sheep that are streaked shall be
your wages, then all the flocks bore streaked." (Genesis 31:4-8) God made
him exceedingly wealthy. He returned with his two wives, Leah and Rachel,
and God blessed him with twelve sons. He saw God face to face and wrestled
with him until the breaking of day, and God called him Israel. He suffered
many sorrows and tribulations, such as the selling of Joseph his son as
a servant to the Egyptians, the loss of his sight, the severe famine, and
others as mentioned in the Holy Bible. His son Joseph then rose to power
and became the second man in Egypt after the Pharaoh, and he tried until
he was able to bring his father Jacob to Egypt, where he stayed for seventeen
years. When his departure drew near he called his twelve sons and blessed
them. When he blessed Judah, he said, "The scepter shall not depart from
Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and to
Him shall be the obedience of the people." That was a prophesy about the
coming of the Lord Christ from his seed. When he was one hundred forty-seven
years, he departed in peace, after commanding that he be buried in the
tomb of his fathers. Joseph carried him in the chariot of Pharaoh, brought
him to the land of Canaan, where he was buried with his fathers
May his prayers be with us and Glory be to our God forever. Amen.
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