The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 173: Confidence in God (2023)

Episode Date: June 22, 2023

Fr. Mike talks about how we see both an abundance of faith, and a great lack of faith in our readings today. While the widow Elisha visits shows us a beautiful example of walking in faith, king Ahaz fails to repent as he falls deeper into sin. Today's readings are 2 Kings 4, 2 Chronicles 28, and Psalm 127. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Now, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 173. We have three chapters. We have 2 Kings chapter 4.

We have 2 Chronicles chapter 28 and Psalm 127. As I mentioned before a thousand times, we are 172 times. The Bible translation that we are reading from is a revised standard version, the second Catholic edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. And if you'd like to subscribe to this podcast, you can click on subscribe to receive daily episodes. As I said yesterday, I don't know if you caught this at the end of the commentary, I guess, this is our last day in 2 Chronicles for roughly the next, I don't know if I'm bad at math, maybe nine days. We're taking a little nine-day hiatus because we're jumping into some prophets. And we have Elijah

the prophet and Elisha the prophet who have not written anything that we know of. But we're jumping into some prophets. And we have Elijah the prophet and Elisha the prophet who have not written anything that we know of. But we're also going to the written prophets because those written prophets have a word. And that word is a word of correction. It is a word that is of warning. And it is a word that is calling the people of Israel and the kingdom of Israel in the north

back to faithfulness, covenant faithfulness with God. And we'll see what happens. They may or may not listen. Spoiler, they don't. So we're going to hear those prophets in the next nine days, and that's going to be Hosea and Amos and Jonah and Micah. Although Jonah didn't go to the prophets, he didn't go to the north. He went to a place called Nineveh. It's a whole nother story. I can't wait to get there when we get there. But today we are here on day 173 with 2 Kings chapter 4, 2 Chronicles chapter 28. We are praying Psalm 127. 2 Kings chapter 4. Elisha and the widow's jar of oil.

Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord, but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves. And Elisha said to her, what shall I do for you? Tell me what have you in the house? And she said, your maid servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil. Then he said, go outside, borrow vessels of all your neighbors, empty vessels, and not too few. Then go in and shut the door upon yourself and your sons, and pour into all these vessels, and when one is full, set it aside. So she went from him and shut the door upon herself and her sons,

and as she poured, they brought the vessels to her. When the vessels were full, she said to her son, Bring me another vessel. And he said to her, There is not another. Then the oil stopped flowing. She came and told the man of God, and he said, go sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on the rest. Elisha and the Shunammite couple. One day, Elisha went on to Shunamm, where a wealthy woman lived,

who urged him to eat some food. So whenever he passed that way, he would turn in there to eat food. And she said to her husband, behold now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God who is continually passing our way. Let us make a small roof chamber with walls and put there for him a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp so that whenever he comes to us, he can go in there. One day he came there and he turned into the chamber and rested there. And he said to Gehazi, his servant, call this Shunammite. When he had called her, she stood before him and he said to him, say now to her, see, you have taken all this trouble for us. What is to be done for you? Would you have a word spoken on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army? She answered, I dwell among my own people. And he said, What then is to be done for her?

Gehazi answered, Well, she has no son, and her husband is old. He said, Call her. And when he had called her, she stood in the doorway, and he said, At this season, when the time comes round, you shall embrace a son. And she said, No, my lord, O man of God, do not lie to your maidservant. But the woman conceived, and she bore a son about that time the following spring, as Elisha had said to her. Elisha restores the Shunammite's son. When the child had grown, he went out one day to his father among the reapers, and he said to his father, O my head, my head. The father said to his servant, Carry him to his mother. And when he had lifted

him and brought him to his mother, the child sat on her lap till noon, and then he died. And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God and shut the door upon him and went out. Then she called to her husband and said, send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys that I may quickly go to the man of God and come back again. And he said, to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her coming, he said to Gehazi, his servant, look, yonder is the Shunammite. Run at once to meet her and say to her, is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child? And she answered, it is well. And when she came to the mountain, to the man of God, she caught hold of his feet and Gehazi came to thrust her away. But the man of God said, Let her alone, for she

is in bitter distress, and the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me. Then she said, Did I ask my Lord for a son? Did I not say, Do not deceive me? He said to Gehazi, Gird up your loins, and take my staff in your hand, and go. If you meet anyone, do not salute him, and if anyone salutes you, do not reply, and lay my staff upon the face of the child. Then the mother of the child said, as the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you. So he arose and followed her. Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff upon the face of the child, but there was no sound or sign of life. Therefore he returned to meet him and told him, the child has not awakened. When Elisha came into the house, he saw the child lying dead on his bed.

So he went in and shut the door upon the two of them and prayed to the Lord. Then he went up and lay upon the child, putting his mouth upon his mouth, his eyes upon his eyes and his hands upon his hands. And as he stretched himself upon him, the flesh of the child became warm. Then he got up again and walked once back and forth in the house and went up and stretched himself upon him. The child sneezed seven times and the child opened his eyes. Then he summoned Gehazi and said, call this Shunammite. So he called her. And when she came to him, he said, take up your son. She came and fell at his feet, bowing to the ground. Then she took up her son and went out. Elisha purifies the pot of pottage.

And Elisha came again to Gilgal when there was a famine in the land. And as the sons of the prophets were sitting before him, he said to his servant, Put on the great pot and boil pottage for the sons of the prophets. One of them went out into the field to gather herbs and found a wild vine and gathered from it his lap full of wild gourds and came and cut them up into the pot of pottage, not knowing what they were. And they poured out for the men to eat. But while they were eating of the pottage, they cried out, O man of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat it. He said, Then bring meal. And he threw it into the pot and said,

Pour out for the men that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot. Elisha feeds a hundred men. A man came from Baal Shalisha, bringing the man of God bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and fresh ears of grain in his sack. And Elisha said, Give to the men that they may eat. But his servant said, How am I to set this before a hundred men?

So he repeated, Give them to the men that they may eat. For thus says the Lord, They shall eat and have some left. So he set it before them, and they ate, and had some left, according to the word of the Lord. The second book of Chronicles, chapter 28, Ahaz's reign over Judah. Ahaz was 20 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord like his father David, but walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. He even made molten images for the Baals, and he burned incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom,

and burned his sons as an offering, according to the abominable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the sons of Israel. And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree. Syria and Israel defeat Judah. Therefore, the Lord his God gave him into the hand of the king of Syria, who defeated him and took captive a great number of his people and brought them to Damascus.

He was also given into the hand of the king of Israel, who defeated him with great slaughter. For Pekah, the son of Hermaliah, slew a hundred and twenty thousand in Judah in one day, all of them men of valor, because they had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers. And Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim, slew Maasei, the king's son, and Azrikam, the commander of the palace, and Elkanah, the next in authority to the king. The prophet Oded intercedes. The men of Israel took captive 200,000 of their kinsfolk, women, sons, and daughters. They also took much spoil from them and brought the spoil to Samaria. But a prophet of the Lord was there whose name was Oded, and he went out to meet the army that came to Samaria and said to them, Behold, because the Lord, the God of your

fathers, was angry with Judah, he gave them into your hand. But you have slain them in a rage which has reached up to heaven. And now you intend to subjugate the people of Judah and Jerusalem, male and female, as your slaves. Have you not sins of your own against the Lord your God? Now hear me and send back the captives from your kinsfolk whom you have taken, for the fierce wrath of the Lord is upon you. Certain chiefs also of the men of Ephraim, Azariah, the son of Johanan, Berechiah, the son of Meshillamoth, Jehezekiah, the son of Shalom, and Amasa, the son of Hadlai, stood up against those who were coming from the war and said to them, You shall not bring

the captives in here, for you propose to bring upon us guilt against the Lord in addition to our present sins and guilt. For our guilt is already great, and there is fierce wrath against Israel. So the armed men left the captives and the spoil before the princes and all the assembly. And the men who had been mentioned by name rose and took the captives. And with the spoil they clothed all that were naked among them, They clothed them, gave them sandals, provided them with food and drink, and anointed them. And carrying all the feeble among them on donkeys, they brought them to their kinsfolk at Jericho, the city of palm trees. Then they returned to Samaria. At that time, King Ahaz sent to the king of Assyria for help, for the Edomites had again invaded and defeated Judah and carried away captives. And the Philistines had made raids on the cities in the Shephelah and the Negev of Judah, and had taken Bet Shemesh, Aijalon, Gedaroth, Soco with its villages,

Timnah with its villages, and Gimzo with its villages, and they settled there. For the Lord brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel, for he had dealt wantonly in Judah and had been faithless to the Lord. So Tilgath-Pilnaser, the king of Assyria, came against him and afflicted him instead of strengthening him. For Ahaz took from the house of the Lord and the house of the king and of the princes and gave tribute to the king of Assyria, but it did not help him. Apostasy and death of Ahaz. In the time of his distress, he became yet more faithless to the Lord, this same King Ahaz. For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus, which

had defeated him and said, because the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me. But they were the ruin of him and of all Israel. And Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God. And he shut up the doors of the house of the Lord. And he made himself altars in every corner of Jerusalem. In every city of Judah, he made high places to burn incense to other gods, provoking to anger the Lord, the God of his fathers. Now the rest of his acts and all his ways, from first to last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city in Jerusalem. For they did not bring him into the tombs of the kings of Israel.

And Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead. Psalm 127, God's blessings in the home. A song of ascents of Solomon. Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest,

eating the bread of anxious toil, for he gives to his beloved sleep. Behold, sons are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the sons of one's youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. Father in heaven, we praise you and we give you glory. We know that you are the one who accomplishes all that we do. In fact, we remember your words, the words of Jesus Christ, the only beloved son of God, the words of Jesus that are, only beloved son of God, the words of Jesus that are, without me, you can do nothing.

And so we ask that you please help us, help us to remain as branches on the vine, help us to remain not far from you, but rooted so closely to you that we get all of our life, all of our power, all of our strength, all of our wisdom, all of our everything from you, that we can bear fruit and fruit that will last fruit that is for your glory and for the salvation of this world that you love and died for. So God, please help us to never be

separated from you. Help us to never be alienated from you. Help us to always be faithful. And when we are faithless, bring us back to you. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So going back in reverse again, we have 2 Chronicles, then we're going to go to 2 Kings. 2 Chronicles, we have Ahaz, and Ahaz is not a good king. If you want to say, I don't know if you want to rank all the bad kings, Ahaz is maybe, I don't know, it could be up for debate. I wonder if Ahaz is the worst king of Judah. Now remember that Ahaz is maybe, I don't know, it could be up for debate. I wonder if Ahaz is the worst king of Judah. Now remember that Ahaz, not only does it say that Ahaz turns away from the Lord, but he gets even further.

He makes molten images for the Baals. He burned incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom. And also he burned his sons as an offering, child sacrifice. He offered up his own child in false worship. So not only did he turn away from the Lord, but in turning away from the Lord, he gave to false gods the lives of his own children. And so Ahaz is not good. And yet Ahaz is needing to continue to lead the people, and he doesn't. He goes to war. Syria and Israel team up, and they defeat Judah. In fact, Syria and Israel inflict such a devastating blow on Judah that it says that Pekah, son of Ramaliah,

slew 120,000 men and Judah in one day. All of them, all of them, brave men of valor, and even the king's son, and the commander of the palace and next in authority to the king. And yet God still, God still is fighting for his people. Why? Because the men of Israel took captive 200,000 of their kinsfolk, women, sons, and daughters, and bring them back to Samaria. And a man of God, a prophet, Oded, he intercedes and says, you know, listen, you're not going to enslave. You're not going to enslave your kinsfolk. And so some people, they were certain chiefs of the men of Ephraim, right? Ephraim is another word for Israel. Azariah is one of them. Barakiah

is another one. Jehezkiah, another one, Amasa, stood up and they said, no, you should not bring captives, not from Judah, not from Judah here to our place. And so they sent them back home. In fact, they even cared for them and sent them back home, which is a good sign from the people of Israel, but they were still also, also still faithless. Gosh, it's a lot of battles against Ahaz because Ahaz has turned against the Lord. He's wandered very, very far from him. And even in that time of distress, remember that the pattern is that you're in that time of distress and you turn to the Lord, you realize, what have I done? Oh my gosh, I repent and come back to him. And it says in verse 22 of chapter 28, it says, in the time of his distress, he became even more faithless to the Lord, this same King Ahaz. And yeah, so Ahaz ends up dying. We're going to see

Ahaz again, of course, because as we know, these stories are repeated and we're going to get some more details on the life of Ahaz and who is trying to speak into his life, trying to speak into his world and call him back to the faithfulness of the Lord. And yet we know the end of the story. He dies faithless to the Lord. Now, at the same time, that's a really remarkable kind of a way to think of it. We know the rest of the story. For example, Elisha in 2 Kings chapter 4, we have miracles happening where Elisha and the widow, remember with Elijah,

there was a widow of Zarephath and she had a son, one young son, and they were going to run out of flour and run out of oil and die. And here in Elijah multiplied that and they didn't run out of oil. They didn't run out of flour until the drought was over, until the famine was over. And here is Elisha with a widow, but she has two sons. And what happens, he has this incredible replenishment of oil because she was going to have to sell her sons to be slaves, sell her children to be slaves. But Elisha had this basically remarkable, I don't want to say, well, miracle, yeah, miracle-producing oil vessel that gather

all of the containers that could possibly contain oil and just keep pouring them out, keep pouring them out. And there's an element here where when we know the end of the story, we would think, oh my gosh, get as many containers as possible. But here's this woman who doesn't know the end of the story yet. And this is the key. This is this walking in faith. And when we know the end of the story, we would say, oh my gosh, as many containers as possible. But here she is thinking, I have one little bit of oil left. I don't need a bunch of containers. But when we walk with that trust and that confidence in God, when we know how the story ends, we wish we would have had the faith that we have at the end at the beginning. Does that make sense? Because so often, I think about this.

I've thought about this story so many times and think, well, if it's me, I would, yeah, okay. Elisha says to do this. He's a man of God. I get it. I'm desperate. So I'll make an effort. But if I had known that you can sell this oil,

pay off your debts, and then live on the rest, it would be gangbusters, right? It would be like nonstop looking for containers to pour oil into that I could sell later on. And that's the thing is like so often when it comes to the Lord, we don't, when it comes to life, obviously, we don't know the end of the story until the story's ended. And yet if I had walked with the faith that was asked of me, I think that I would have walked a little more joyfully.

I think I would have walked a little more boldly, maybe more confidently, with more courage. Now, one last story in 2 Kings 4. We have the Shunammite couple. And remember, Elijah did great things. Elisha doing incredible things. And Jesus does even more than all of these. But two quick notes, if we have the time to do this, of Elisha and the Shunammite woman.

And this woman and her husband, here's the man of God who passes by, and they give him a meal. And so she at one point says, you know what, let's just, let's make a, give him a place to stay. Let's build a little room on the roof that when he passes by, he can rest here. And that's just super nice, super hospitable, really great. But at one point, Elisha asks the question, what is she lacking? And she basically says, I don't have a son and my husband's old. And so Elisha says, well, this year, next time, next time this year, you'll have a son. And she says, listen, don't play with my heart. Like don't toy with my emotions. Don't get my hopes up because I've come to a place where I realized this is all I've got. It's all I ever will have.

Don't play with me. And Elisha says, no, no, no, listen, this is what's going to happen. So she has a son and her heart gets big, right? Her heart abounds in joy because here is this child that she had longed for. And now the child's been given. And then what happens when the child had grown? He was out one day with his father among the reapers. They were out working in the field and he's like, I had a headache. And so we'll bring him into his mom. She holds onto him by noon that day he's dead. And there's that sense that here she is saying, okay, listen, why did you have to bring me this person, this, this being, this son of mine for me to give my heart to him only to have him die. And this is, gosh, isn't this the

cry of so many of our hearts when that happens to us? Say, God, why in the world would you give me these people in my life only to have them walk away, only to have them be taken away, only to have this thing end? Why would you give me such great, incredible blessings only to have it come to an end at some point? Or even like this Shunammite woman, because I know there are moms and dads who are praying with us and listening to this Bible in the air. And this is your story. God, why would you give us this child only to have this child be taken away from us? Why would you let us get pregnant only to have us lose the pregnancy? Why would you get our hopes up only to dash those hopes? And remember, if only we had faith

at the beginning of the story that we have at the end of the story, only if we had the trust and confidence in God at the beginning of the story that we will have one day when we know how the story ends. Because we know that here's a God, our God is God of the living and the dead. And all those people that we've. And all those people that we've loved and all those wounds that we've experienced, they are not for nothing. None of them is for nothing. In this case, the case of the Shunammite woman, her son is restored to her. Remember, Elisha has a double portion of Elijah's spirit. Elijah was able to raise the dead. Here's Elisha who's able to raise the dead after the child has been dead and cold, had been dead for a long time. Jesus, ultimately, not only is he going to raise

the little girl from the dead, even though she was only dead for a short time, the son of the widow of Nain, who's on his way to being buried, but also Lazarus, who had been dead and in the tomb. He'd been dead for four days and in the tomb. So Jesus blows them all out of the water. And what does he do when he blows them all out of the water? He reveals to us that death is not the end. And yet death does break our hearts. And so today, one of the things we're going to ask is that all of us who have hearts that can pray, all of us that have hearts that maybe they have been broken, maybe they have

been wounded, maybe they have been torn apart because of loss. We're going to, as this community, we're going to be praying this day for all of those whose hearts have been broken, whose hearts have been torn apart because of loss that haven't yet recovered, that haven't yet been able to say, okay, Lord, I can see at the end of the story. I can see your goodness. I can see your providence. I can see how you're going to use this to ultimately for good.

I don't know how, but that's where we come in. That's where the rest of us come in. Because right now you might be in a place where you're too weak to be able to pray like that. Maybe you're in a place right now where you're too broken to be able to pray like that. You're too grieved to be able to pray like that. And so what we're going to do is we're going to pray for you. We're going to lift you up.

Because if we only knew the end of the story, how we lived the middle of the story would be dramatically changed. If only we knew the end of the story, how we live today might be dramatically changed. We do know the end. In the end, Christ will make all things right. The one who could raise the dead will raise what is dead in you and in me and restore all things. He will make all things new. So brothers and sisters, those of us who have been through loss, have been through pain, and trust the Lord, we are praying now for our brothers and sisters who are in the midst of loss, in the midst of pain, in the midst of trial. We're praying for them now. Please pray

for me. I am praying for you. My name is Father Mike, and I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.