OLD TESTAMENT READINGS FROM GREAT VESPERS ON THE EVEN OF THE FEAST OF THE SYNAXIS OF THE ARCHANGELS AND ANGELS

First Reading Taken From the Book of Joshua (5:13-15)

"Then it came to pass, when Joshua was at Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing before him with a sword drawn in his hand. So Joshua came near and said to him, 'Are you for us or the side of our adversaries?' He said to him, 'I am now come, the chief captain of the host of the Lord.' Then Joshua fell on his face upon the earth and said to him, 'O Master, what do you command your servant?' 'The chief captain of the Lord said to Joshua, 'Loose the shoe from your feet; for the place on which you stand is holy.'

The three Orders in the lowest hierarchy are the Principalities, Archangels, and Angels. The Principalities are so called because they rule over the Angels below them and direct them to fulfill God's commands. It is they who watch over the world, protecting and guarding every kingdom and principality, every province and people, tribe and nation, for each of these has its own angel of this rank as guardian and governor. According to Saint Gregory, it is the duty of this Order to teach men to render to all in authority the honor due their station.

The Holy Church, which rejects the impious worship of Angels devised by idolaters and heretics of old, received from the divinely inspired Holy Fathers the tradition of celebrating with reverence the Synaxis of the Holy Angels. In the days of the Old Testament, the people of God, having fallen away from the Creator, began to worship that which the Lord created. They made idols after the likeness of things visible, of that which is in heaven above and earth beneath, the work of their own hands (Exodus, Ch. 20). At that time, when the people offered oblations (sacrifice) unto the sun, the moon, and the stars as gods, imagining that these possessed living souls, they also began to worship Angels. The Book of Kings makes mention of this, saying that they "burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the twelve signs of the Zodiac, and to all the host of heaven" (Kings, Ch. 23), that is, to the Angels; for the host of heaven is comprised of the Angels, as is said in the Gospel. And "suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly host" (Luke, Ch.2).