The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 186: Struggles with Self-Interest (2023)

Episode Date: July 5, 2023

Fr. Mike highlights the goodness of Hezekiah as king of Judah but also points out his failure to protect the future of his people. While Hezekiah let his self-interest cloud his judgment, we are reminded to pray for those who will come after us, doing our best to preserve what will be theirs one day. Today's readings are 2 Kings 20, 2 Chronicles 31, and Psalm 144. 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.

Hi, 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 186. We are reading today from 2 Kings chapter 20, 2 Chronicles chapter 31. We're also praying Psalm 144. As always, the Bible translation that I'm reading from

is the 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 want to subscribe to this podcast, you can. You don't have to, but you can. As I said, it is today. It is today. Today is the day it is. It's day 186, and we are reading 2 Kings 20, 2 Chronicles 31, and we are praying Psalm 144. 2 Kings chapter 20, Hezekiah's illness. In those days, Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him and said to him, Thus says the Lord,

Set your house in order, for you shall die, you shall not recover. Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying, Remember now, O Lord, I beg you, how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart and have done what is good in your sight. And Hezekiah wept bitterly. And before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him. Turn back and say to Hezekiah, the prince of my people, thus says the Lord, the God of David, your father, I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you. On the third day, you shall go up to the house of the Lord, and I will add 15 years to your life. I will deliver you and

this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city for my own sake and for my servant David's sake. And Isaiah said, Bring a cake of figs, and let them take and lay it on the boil, that he may recover. And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the Lord on the third day? And Isaiah said, This is the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that he has promised. Shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or go back ten steps? And Hezekiah answered, It is an easy thing for the shadow to lengthen ten steps. Rather, let the shadow go back ten steps. And Isaiah the prophet cried to the Lord, and he

brought the shadow back ten steps by which the sun had declined on the dial of Ahaz. Envoys from Babylon. At that time, Merodach-Baladon, the son of Baladon, king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick. And Hezekiah welcomed them, and he showed them all his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them. Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him, What did these men say? And from where did they come to you? And Hezekiah said, They have come from a far country

from Babylon. He said, What have they seen in your house? And Hezekiah answered, They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them. Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord. Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up to this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. And some of your own sons, who are born to you, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good. For he

thought, Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days? Death of Hezekiah. The rest of the deeds of Hezekiah, in all his might, and how he made the pool and the conduit and brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and Manasseh his son reigned in his stead. The second book of Chronicles chapter 31. Pagan shrines destroyed. Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and broke in pieces the pillars and hewed down the Asherim and broke down the to minister in the gates of the camp of the Levites, for burnt offerings and peace offerings, to minister in the gates of the camp of the Lord, and to give thanks and praise. The contribution of the king

from his own possessions was for the burnt offerings, the burnt offerings of morning and evening, and the burnt offerings for the Sabbaths, the new moons, and the appointed feasts, as it is written in the law of the Lord. And he commanded the people who lived in Jerusalem to give the portion due to the priests and the Levites, that they might give themselves to the law of the Lord. And he commanded the people who lived in Jerusalem to give the portion due to the priests and the Levites that they might give themselves to the law of the Lord. As soon as the command was spread abroad, the sons of Israel gave in abundance the first fruits of grain, wine, oil, honey, and of all the produce of the fields. They brought in abundantly the tithe of everything. And the sons of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah also brought in the tithe of cattle and sheep and the dedicated things which had been consecrated to the Lord their God and laid them

in heaps. In the third month they began to pile up the heaps and finished them in the seventh month. When Hezekiah and the princes came and saw the heaps, they blessed the Lord and his people Israel. And Hezekiah questioned the priests and the Levites about the heaps. Azariah, the chief priest, who was of the house of Zadok, answered him, Since they began to bring the contributions into the house of the Lord, we have eaten and had enough and plenty left, for the Lord has blessed his people, so that we have this great store left. Reorganization of the Priests and Levites

Then Hezekiah commanded them to prepare chambers in the house of the Lord, and they prepared them, and they faithfully brought in the contributions, the tithes, and the dedicated things. The chief officer in charge of them was Conaniah the Levite, with Shimei his brother as second, while Jehiel, Azaziah, Nahath, Asahel, Jeromoth, Josabath, Eliel, Ismachiah, Mahath, and Benaiah were overseers assisting Conaniah and Shimei, his brother, by the appointment of Hezekiah the king and Nazariah the chief officer of the house of God. And Cori, the son of Imnah the Levite, keeper of the east gate, was over the freewill offerings to God to apportion the contribution reserved for the Lord and the most holy offerings.

Eden, Maniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shekiniah were faithfully assisting him in the cities of the priests to distribute the portions to their brethren, old and young alike by divisions, except those enrolled by genealogy, males from three years old and upwards, all who entered the house of the Lord as the duty of each day required, for their service according to their offices by their divisions. The enrollment of the priests was according to their fathers' houses, that of the Levites from twenty years old and upwards was according to their offices by their divisions. The priests were enrolled with all their little children, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, the whole multitude, for they were faithful in keeping themselves holy.

And for the sons of Aaron, the priests, who were in the fields of common land belonging to their cities, there were men in the several cities who were designated by name to distribute portions to every male among the priests, who were in the fields of common land belonging to their cities, there were men in the several cities who were designated by name to distribute portions to every male among the priests and to every one among the Levites who was enrolled. Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah, and he did what was good and right and faithful before the Lord his God. And every work that he undertook in the service of the house of God and in accordance with the law and the commandments seeking his God, he did with all his heart and prospered. Psalm 144, prayer for national deliverance and security. A Psalm of David. Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle,

my mercy and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield and he in whom I take refuge, who subdues my people under me. O Lord, what is man that you regard him or the son of man that you think of him? Man is like a breath. His days are like a passing shadow. Bow your heavens, O Lord, and come down.

Touch the mountains that they smoke. Flash forth the lightning and scatter them. Send out your arrows and rout them. Stretch forth your hand from on high. Rescue me and deliver me from the many waters, from the hand of aliens, whose mouths speak lies and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood. I will sing a new song to you, O God.

Upon a ten-stringed harp I will play to you, who give victory to kings, who rescue David, your servant, from the cruel sword. Rescue me from the cruel sword, and deliver me from the hand of aliens, whose mouths speak lies, and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood. May our sons in their youth be like plants full grown,

our daughters like corner pillars cut for the structure of a palace. May our garners be full, providing like plants full grown. Our daughters like corner pillars cut for the structure of a palace. May our garners be full, providing all manner of stone. May our sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our fields. May our cattle be heavy with young, suffering no mischance or failure in bearing. May there be no cry of distress in our streets. Happy the people to whom such blessings fall. Happy the people whose God is the Lord. Father in heaven, we thank you and give you praise. Happy the people whose God is the Lord. You are our God and we are blessed because you are good. And we thank you for your goodness, Lord God, today. Whether we're praying these words, hearing these words early in the morning,

in the middle of our day, at the end of our day, whatever time we are, we are blessed just to know you, God. We are blessed just to have you in our lives, to not go through this life not knowing who you are, not knowing who we are, not knowing where we come from or who we come from, not knowing who we are made for. We are made for you, Lord God. And we give you praise and thank you. In Jesus' name we pray, in name, amen, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So we have Hezekiah. He's a good king. And he, obviously, here we are in 2 Kings 20, Hezekiah is in danger of death and so much in danger of death that Isaiah comes to him and says, yeah, you're going to die.

Thus says the Lord. And Hezekiah prays. He beseeches the Lord and it's reversed, right? He gets a miraculous healing, which is remarkable. That happens. That kind of miracle can happen. Now, it doesn't always happen, obviously, because we've seen everybody in the Bible up to this point. Everyone up to this point has died, whether from old age or from violence or from accident or from illness.

Every person in the Bible so far has died. At this point, though, Hezekiah is spared and he gets an extra 15 years. It's kind of an interesting thing where Hezekiah wants a sign. How am I supposed to know? And there's the shadow on the steps, right? So the shadow is growing, meaning that the day keeps going, the sun keeps going in the sky, you know, the earth keeps revolving and let the shadow go back 10 steps. And it does as a sign for Hezekiah that yes, God is going to save his life. Now that's fascinating and powerful and interesting, but it doesn't necessarily tell us much about what's going to happen.

What does tell us about what's going to happen is the envoy from Babylon shows up. And Hezekiah, he kind of gets it into his head that he wants to impress the Babylonians and the Babylonian envoy. Bad news bears here is Babylon, pretty impressive place. One of the seven wonders of the world, the hanging gardens of Babylon, what an incredible, powerful nation at this point. And here is King Hezekiah, who with the envoy in Babylon comes along and he says, let me show you all of our stuff. I'll show you all the treasures we have. I'll even show you all the weapons we have. I'll show you our armory. I will show you how many soldiers we have.

And Isaiah goes to Hezekiah and rebukes him like, what did you do? Why? What do you mean? You just told this invading, they're not invading right now. They're just sent on a peaceful mission to see how you're doing because we heard you were sick, but they're going to come back. And now they have all of the secrets of this place. And they will be able to destroy this nation and put everyone into exile. And we get this sense of Hezekiah, the last kind of word we get from him is, Hezekiah says to Isaiah,

the word of the Lord, which you have spoken is good. For he thought, why not? That there will be peace and security in my days. And you get this from this great, great king. He's done a good job. But we also get shallowness, right? That, okay, sure. Yep.

Judah will fall. The people will be put into exile. Babylon will win, but at least not during my lifetime. And we just think, man, in this last moment, the last word we hear Hezekiah speak is a word of self-preoccupation and not really being the words of the king who would be interested in not only taking care of his people, but also honoring the Lord. And it's just a reality, of course, is that we don't put our trust in princes.

That's one of the scriptures we pray in the Psalms. We put no trust in princes, in mortal men in whom there is no help, because what we do is we trust in the Lord. We know that no matter how good a king is or how good a ruler is, how good a friend, a person, a pastor, whoever is, we know that they're also going to be fallen. We know they're also going to be broken. And so here is Hezekiah, a good king who is faithful to the Lord, who has very selfish thoughts at the end of his life, and yet still is remembered for being that good king

who just as we read about in 2 Chronicles 31, who reinstituted worship, who got people to be able to praise and give God glory. And that's what we wanna do. We wanna be people like that, not necessarily self-interested or just concerned with our generation, but also praying not only for ourselves now,

but also for future generations. So here's one of the things that's happening right now. As we are walking through this, as we're journeying through this Bible in a year, there are people who will come after us, people who will be journeying on this Bible in a year and have been, but not necessarily at the same time as we are right now.

And so I'm gonna invite us all to pray for them right now, to take this opportunity, not only to pray for those who are doing this right now, but pray for those who will be doing this Bible in a year in the future. And those people who are just a little bit behind you, maybe, or maybe a long ways behind you. We're praying for all of those people. Anyone who's listening to this right now, that they were, if you're, if you're like, I'm a little bit behind than when we originally did this, you know, that at this moment, when someone heard this, these words, maybe a day ahead of you,

maybe a week ahead of you, maybe a year or more ahead of you that they prayed for you at this moment, when someone heard this, these words, maybe a day ahead of you, maybe a week ahead of you, maybe a year or more ahead of you, that they prayed for you at this moment. So now it's your turn to pray for those behind you. Pray for those who will be coming, because I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. Let's pray for each other.

My name's Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless. you