My Beloved the Benevolent                   September 2024                                  

Grace and peace, wishing you every goodness and blessings

God created man in His image and likeness and placed him in the Paradise of Joy to experience life with his Creator, full of joy, without sadness or misery. When man fell under the temptation of Satan, he was expelled from the Paradise of Joy, the image in which he was created was distorted, and he began a journey of torment and misery on earth. “For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3:19. For this reason, we find that life around us is full of suffering, misery and struggle. So I ask the question: Who are the miserable people? We try to answer this question through three stories from the Holy Bible.

1. Cain and Abel: Cain became angry with his brother Abel, lured him into a field, and killed him; this was the first crime committed in human history. Who is the miserable one, Cain or Abel – the murdered, or the murderer? In Hebrews, St. Paul says, “By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.” Hebrews 11:4. As for the miserable Cain, he heard the voice of God saying to him, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.” Genesis 4:10, 12.

2. King Ahab and Naboth the Jezreelite: King Ahab wanted to take Naboth the Jezreelite’s vineyard which was adjacent to his palace and offered to either buy it from him or give him a better vineyard instead. But Naboth rejected the king’s offer, saying, “The Lord forbid that I should give the inheritance of my fathers to you!” 1 Kings 21:3 Naboth’s refusal was a refusal to break God’s commandment. God commanded His people, “So the inheritance of the children of Israel shall not change hands from tribe to tribe, for every one of the children of Israel shall keep the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.” Numbers 36:7 “The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine, for you are strangers and sojourns with Me.” Lev. 25-23 “Moreover the prince shall not take any of the people’s inheritance by evicting them from their property; he shall provide an inheritance for his sons from his own property, so that none of My people may be scattered from his property.” Es.46:18

Jezebel, the king’s wife, plotted a conspiracy in which Naboth was accused of blaspheming God, so he was therefore killed. The evil Jezebel came to Ahab, saying, “Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money; for Naboth is not alive, but dead.”1 Kings 21:15 Ahab, the miserable, heard the words of his evil wife Jezebel, and arose to go to the vineyard of Naboth to inherit it; and the judgment of God came upon him from the mouth of the prophet Elijah, “Have you murdered and also taken possession? In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, dogs shall lick your blood, even yours.” 1 Kings 21:19 The evil Jezebel said, “Naboth is not alive but dead.” God said that Ahab and Jezebel are the dead. As for Naboth, God accepted him because he kept God’s commandment until death. The fruit of obedience is life, and the consequence of disobedience is eternal death. 

3. Sadducees and Apostles:  The apostles preached Christ, His crucifixion and His resurrection, which particularly disturbed the chief priests and those with them from the sects of the Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection. God performed many signs and wonders at the hands of the apostles, and the Sadducees admitted that these miracles had occurred, but instead of believing, they arrested the apostles, flogged them, and commanded them not to teach in the name of Jesus (Acts 5:40). The apostles refused to the be threatened by the chief priests and Sadducees, but as the book of Acts states, “So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.” Acts 5:41-42

+ Of these three stories, we find that the miserable ones are Cain, Ahab, Jezebel, the chief priests, and those with them from the sect of the Sadducees, even though they had the power and ability to harm others. As for Abel and Naboth the Jezreelite who were killed, and the apostles who were flogged and then martyred, they are the blessed and happy ones despite what they suffered on earth.

Here the clear truth is revealed that the true wretch is the sinner, no matter how much power and authority he possesses, and this is what was expressed in the Book of Revelation in the Letter to the angel of the Laodiceans, “You say, ‘I am rich, have been wealthy, and have need of nothing’ – and do not know that you are the wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.” Revelation 3:17

May God grant us to help every wretched person to leave the way of sin and live a life of holiness and righteousness.

May God bless your gifts to support Santa Verena Charity programs.

Metropolitan Serapion