The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 194: Holy Is the Lord (2023)

Episode Date: July 13, 2023

Fr. Mike zeroes in on Isaiah 5-6 today. He emphasizes the literary masterpiece of the parable of the vineyard in Isaiah 5 and how it represents the story of Israel. He also shows us how Isaiah 6 is full of rich symbolism that points to the sacred realities of the Mass. We are reminded that God is truly holy and deserving of our praise. Today's readings are Isaiah 5-6, Tobit 5-6, and Proverbs 10:1-4. 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 194. Congratulations. Well done.

Keep on moving. We are reading from Isaiah chapters 5 and 6, Tobit chapters 5 and 6. We're also reading through Proverbs chapter 10, verses 1 through 4. So just a short reading from Proverbs, but we do have those two other chapters in both Isaiah and Tobit. As always, the Bible translation that I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, 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. You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe. You receive daily episodes and daily updates every day because that's what happens when they're every day. As I said, it's Isaiah 5 and 6 today, which is just 5 and 6. Both

are remarkable for many reasons, but in five, we have this poem as a literary masterpiece that also Jesus will ultimately kind of use as another one of his parables. And in chapter six, we have this man, the call basically of Isaiah to be the prophet that he had become. And not just the call, but also the capability that God gave him the ability to be able to be this person, to speak to the capability that God gave him the ability to be able to be this person to speak to the people of Israel, to the Jewish people, to the people of the kingdom of Judah. Also Tobit five and six moving along with his story and with Sarah's story who was introduced

yesterday. Anyways, as I said, it is a 194. We're reading Isaiah chapter five and six, Tobit five and six and Proverbs 10 verses one through four. Isaiah chapter 5 and 6, Tobit 5 and 6, and Proverbs 10 verses 1 through 4. The book of the prophet Isaiah, chapter 5, the parable of the vineyard. Let me sing for my beloved a love song concerning his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.

He dug it and cleared it of stones and planted it with choice vines. He built a watchtower in the midst of it and hewed out a wine vat in it. And he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, I beg you between me and my vineyard, what more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured. I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste. It shall not be pruned or hoed, and briars and thorns shall grow up. I will also command the clouds that they rain no

rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting. And he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed, for righteousness, but behold, a cry. Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is no more room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land. The Lord of hosts has sworn in my hearing, surely many houses shall be desolate, large and beautiful houses without inhabitant. For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah. Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may run after a strong drink, who linger late into the evening till wine inflames them.

They have lyre and harp, timbrel and flute, and wine at their feasts, but they do not regard the deeds of the Lord, or see the work of his hands. Therefore my people will go into exile for want of knowledge. Their honored men are dying of hunger, and their multitude is parched with thirst. Therefore, Sheol has enlarged its appetite and opened its mouth beyond measure, and the nobility of Jerusalem and her multitude go down, her throng and he who exalts in her. Man is bowed down, and men are brought low, and the eyes of the haughty are humbled. But the Lord of hosts is exalted in justice, and the holy God shows himself holy in righteousness. Then shall the lambs graze as in their pasture, fatlings and kids shall feed among the ruins.

Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, who draw sin as with cart ropes, who say, Let him make haste, let him speed his work, that we may see it. Let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel draw near, and let it come, that we may know it. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and shrewd in their own sight. Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and valiant men in mixing strong drink, who acquit the guilty for a bribe and deprive the innocent of his right. Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as dry grass sinks down into the flame, so their root will be as rottenness, and their

blossom go up like dust. For they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people, and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them, and the mountains quaked. And their corpses were as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still. He will raise a signal for a nation afar off, and whistle for it from the ends of the earth, and behold, swiftly, speedily it comes. None is weary, none stumbles, none slumbers or sleeps, not a waistcloth is loose, not a sandal thong broken. Their arrows are sharp, all their bows bent, their horses' hoofs seem like flint,

and their wheels like the whirlwind. Their roaring is like the lion, like young lions they roar. They growl and seize their prey, they carry it off, and none can escape. They will growl over it Chapter 6. A Vision of the Lord in the Temple In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim, each had six wings. With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said, Woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell

in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphim to me, having in his hand a burning coal, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said, Behold, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away and your sin forgiven. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Then I said, And he said, How long, O Lord? And he said, Until cities lie waste without inhabitant,

and houses without men, and the land is utterly destroyed, and the Lord removes men far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains standing when it is felled. The holy seed is its stump. The Book of Tobit, Chapter 5. The found Raphael, who was an angel, but Tobias did not know it. Tobias said to him, can you go with me to Rages in Media? Are you

acquainted with that region? The angel replied, I will go with you. I am familiar with the way and I have stayed with our brother, Gabael. Then Tobias said to him, wait for me and I shall tell my father. And he said to him, go and do not delay. So he went in and said to him, Wait for me, and I shall tell my father. And he said to him, Go, and do not delay. So he went in and said to his father, I have found someone to go with me. He said, Call him to me, so that I may learn to what tribe he belongs, and whether he is a reliable man to go with you. So Tobias invited him in. He entered, and they greeted each other.

Then Tobit said to him, My brother, to what tribe and family do you belong? Tell me. But he answered, Are you looking for a tribe and a family, Then Tobit said to him, You are welcome, my brother. Do not be angry with me because I tried to learn your tribe and family. You are a relative of mine, of a good and noble lineage. For I used to know Ananias and Jathan, the sons of the great Shemaiah, when we went together to Jerusalem to worship and offered the firstborn of our flocks and the tithes of our produce. They did not go astray in the error of our brethren. My brother, you come of good stock, did not go astray in the error of our brethren. My brother, you come of good stock,

but tell me, what wages am I to pay you? A drachma a day and expenses for yourself as for my son? And besides, I will add to your wages if you both return safe and sound. So they agreed to these terms. Then he said to Tobias, get ready for the journey and good success to you both. So his son made the preparations for the journey and his

father said to him, go with this man. God who dwells in heaven will prosper your way and may his angel attend you. So they both went out and departed and the young man's dog was with them. But Anna, his mother began to weep and said to Tobit, why have you sent our child away? Is he not the staff of our hands as he goes in and out before us? Do not add money to money, but consider it rubbish as compared to our child. For the life that is given to us by the Lord is enough for us. And Tobit said to her, Do not worry, my sister. He will return safe and sound, and your eyes will see him. For a good angel will go with him. His journey will be successful, and he will

come back safe and sound. So she stopped weeping. Chapter 6. A Miraculous Fish. Now as they proceeded on their way, they came at evening to the Tigris River and camped there. Then the young man went down to wash himself. A fish leaped up from the river and would have swallowed the young man, and the angel said to him, catch the fish. So the young man seized the fish and threw it up on the land. Then the angel said to him, cut open the fish and take the heart and the liver and gall and put them away safely. So the young man did as the angel told him, and they roasted and ate the fish.

And they both continued on their way until they came near to Ecbatana. Then the young man said to the angel, Brother Azarias, of what use is the liver and heart and gall of the fish? He replied, As for the heart and liver, if a demon or evil spirit gives trouble to anyone, you make a smoke from these before the man or woman, and that person will never be troubled again. And as for the gall, anoint with it a man who has white films in his eyes,

and he will be cured. Raphael's Instructions When he entered Medea, and was already approaching Ecbatana, Raphael said to the young man, Brother Tobias, here I am, he answered. Then Raphael said to him, We must stay this night in the home of Raguel. He is your relative, and he has a daughter named Sarah. He has no male heir and no daughter except Sarah only, and you, as next of kin to her,

have before all other men a hereditary claim on her. Also, it is right for you to inherit her father's possessions. Moreover, the girl is sensible, brave, and very beautiful, and her father is a good man. Then the young man said to the angel, Brother Azarias, I have heard that the girl has been given to seven husbands and that each died in the bridal chamber. Now I am the only son my father has, and I am afraid that if I go in I will die as those before me did. For a demon is in love with

her, and he harms no one except those who approach her. So now I fear that I may die and bring the lives of my father and mother to the grave in sorrow on my account. And they have no other son to bury them. But the angel said to him, Do you not remember the words with which your father commanded you to take a wife from among your own people? Now listen to me, brother, for she will become your wife, and do not worry about the demon. For this very night she will be given to you in marriage. When you enter the bridal chamber, you shall take live ashes of incense and lay upon them some of the heart and liver of the fish so as to make a smoke.

Then the demon will smell it and flee away and will never again return. And when you approach her, rise up, both of you, and cry out to the merciful God, and he will save you and have mercy on you. Do not be afraid, for she was destined for you from eternity. You will save her and she will go with you, and I suppose that you will have children by her. When Tobias heard these things, he fell in love with her and yearned deeply for her. The Book of Proverbs, Chapter 10, Verses 1 through 4. Wise sayings of Solomon. The Proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother. Treasures gained by wickedness do not profit, but righteousness delivers from death.

The Lord does not let the righteous go hungry, but he thwarts the craving of the wicked. A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. Father in heaven, we give you praise and thanks. We thank you so much. Thank you so much for your holiness. Thank you for your transcendence. Thank you for your omnipotence. Thank you for the fact that you are sovereign, Lord God.

You are sovereign over all, and you are awe-inspiring. You are awesome and awful in the best possible way, Lord God. You inspire us, and we're full of awe in your presence. And in the presence of your word, Lord God, as you continue to speak to us these days, we ask that you please open our eyes that we may see and return to you. Open our ears that we may hear and return to you. Open our hearts that we can understand, our minds we can understand, and come 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. So yeah, gosh, here we go. In Isaiah chapter five, we have, gosh, you guys, we have Isaiah five and six, which is just incredible. Isaiah five,

we have this great, the song of the vineyard, the parable of the vineyard. I will sing this song of my beloved. Basically what happens, God built a vineyard. He called the, this is the analogy, right? God called the people of Israel. He brought them out of slavery in Egypt. He brought them to the promised land. He made them fruitful. Honestly, he cleared the way in front of them as they came into the promised land. Remember Joshua? Remember how Joshua, he led the people in battle? I mean, even think of Jericho as one example of when God was with them and when they were faithful to him, he cleared the way ahead of them and he destined them to be fruitful. He destined their lives to have this, not just toil and not just labor, but to have incredible fruit.

But then here's God. God says, I did all these things. He built a watchtower, built a hedge, built a wine press, all these things, planted great grapes. But when I looked for grapes, I didn't find grapes. I found wild grapes. And this is the end result, right? Is here's the people of Israel.

And now here in the southern kingdom of Judah, the people of God who did not bring forth the fruit that God had called them apart for. Remember, the three promises to Abraham is land, is a dynasty and worldwide blessing that through them, the entire world would be blessed and they're not bearing the fruit that they need to. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to tear down the wall. I'm going to tear down all the vines for grapes. I'm going to make a ruin of this place. I'm going to let people come in and take them into another land. And in fact, he even says later on, he says, yeah, I'll only leave a 10th. I'll just leave a 10th. And this

is in chapter six and the next chapter, the very last lines, though a 10th remain in it because here's what's going to happen. Isaiah is prophesying that what's going to happen to the South is going to be the fact that the South is going to be taken into exile and only a 10th of the people are going to be left in Jerusalem and in Judea, but the others are going to be taken to Babylon. And that's ultimately what happens. And that go back the beginning of chapter six, in the year that King Uzziah died, and this is really great. We have clear and accurate timing. So we know when Uzziah died. And what happened in that moment? What happened in that moment is Isaiah's getting a commission, and his commission of being a prophet in a unique way

where he has seen the glory of the Lord. And this is remarkable. So he sees the seraphim and how many he sees, I do not know, but because it's both, it kind of mixes back and forth with singular and plural at the same time. For example, it says above him stood the seraphim, each had six wings with two, but then so each had six wings, but then with two, he covered his face. So it was very singular again. I'm like, I don't, I don't understand. I don't know how many people, but, or how many seraphim there are because later on in verse six, it says, then flew one of the seraphim to me. So there's multiple. Each one of these seraphim though have six wings. And why did the seraphim have six wings? Well, one pair covers the feet, one pair covers their eyes and one pair holds them aloft. And this is, gosh, you guys, the symbolism of this is just remarkable.

Here is one aspect of the symbolism. The seraphim, their feet are covered. Why? Because they're in a holy place. And their feet are not, the feet of the angels of God are not worthy to stand upon, to be exposed to the Lord God. They cover their eyes. Why? Because here is the Lord God who is so holy that not even the angels of God can look upon him and survive. So they cover their feet, they cover their eyes, and the other pair of wings, they hover aloft. And what do they cry out? They cry out, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. If you are Catholic, you know these words.

You know that we call it the sanctus or the holy, holy, holy, because we say these words. We pray these words on a regular basis. When? When we're about to enter into the holiest moment of our entire lives, the holiest moment of the mass, when the Eucharist, when the bread and wine become the body and blood of Jesus, and we're brought into the presence of Jesus. Now, think about this. This is incredible. It says this.

It says, when Isaiah experiences this, he says, I say, woe is me, for I am lost. And this is the experience of actually coming into contact with the true and living God. It's not just kind of one of those, oh, neat, or, oh, yeah, I belong here. It's, and it's not even just like, hey, wow. It's no, whoa, whoa is me because I don't know of how many of us have ever really encountered the reality of God. Where we get to the place where we see the truth that here is God himself, who is so good, who is so beautiful, who is love itself, who is holy. And in stark contrast, we realize the truth about ourselves, that we are made to be good. We are made to be beautiful. We are made to be wise. We're made to be holy, but we fall short all the time. It's like

when, remember when Jesus got into Simon Peter's boat and had this big catch of fish and Peter realizes he falls at his, to his knees and he says, depart from me, Lord, I'm a sinful man. Jesus lifts him up essentially and says, ah, from now on you'll be catching men. Like this is a big moment where here we realize our, our lack. We realize our need. We realize his goodness. And yet God doesn't run away from us.

He calls us near to himself. And this is what happens to Isaiah. Isaiah sees this reality of God's presence, the reality of God's goodness, his holiness. What was me? I'm lost from a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. And yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

This is God's call to Isaiah. And he realizes I'm going to go preach to a bunch of people who are a mess. They are a mess and I'm a mess. And again, let's go back to the moment of the mass, M-A-S-S, not E-M-E-S-S, the mass. And we say, holy, holy, holy. And we then in that moment, if you're not Catholic, what we do is in the Catholic mass, we fall to our knees in that moment. We say, holy, holy, holy. And we have this whole prayer.

And we fall to our knees. And what happens to Isaiah? Well, an angel takes some tongs and he goes over to the altar. And he takes a coal from the altar and he touches Isaiah on the mouth with it. And he says, behold, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away and your sin forgiven. That's the mouth with it. And he says, behold, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away and your sin forgiven. That's the early church fathers. Now this is the crazy thing in the early church, like the first couple of centuries of Christianity,

the early early church fathers saw this as a type, as, as a foreshadowing of what happens in the mass is that we say, Holy, Holy, Holy fall to our knees. And then what happens is the burning coal of the Eucharist, right? The burning coal of the Eucharist, the flame of God's very presence is taken from the altar and placed in our mouth, placed on our lips. And we experienced this transformation by the very fact that we get to come into contact, like contact with the Lord God himself. Ah, it's just incredible, incredible. And then wouldn't not only then God asked the question, who will go for me? Who will go for us? Whom shall I send?

And Isaiah says, here I am, send me. And he says, okay, go and say to this people, et cetera, et cetera. At the end of the mass, what happens at the end of the, every mass, the priest says, okay, go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life. Basically, yes, you've come into God's presence. Holy, holy, holy. You fall into your knees. That burning ember, burning coal of the Eucharist has touched your mouth and filled you and transformed you.

And now go and declare Jesus to the nations. This is just, ah, blows my mind. It's amazing. It's incredible. And just next time you go to Mass, realize this is the reality. For Isaiah, it was a type. It was real, but it was a type. For all of us, it is the fulfillment of this. And what a gift. What a gift to not only hear God's Word proclaimed and declared like this, but also to be able to participate in a unique way every time we go to Mass.

Also, the book of Tobit, hopefully that made sense yesterday about the Deuterocanonicals. And so incredible, we have this archangel Raphael who is leading Tobias to find his wife. And Sarah, these worlds are colliding with the life of Tobit who had been praying for death,

the life of Sarah who'd been praying for death, and now here through the Lord's action, God is bringing their stories together. And we're going to find out what happens with them tomorrow. So keep praying for each other. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.