The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 203: Rejoice in the Lord (2023)

Episode Date: July 22, 2023

Fr. Mike points out God's remarkable promise of deliverance to Israel even in the midst of their captivity and apparent hopelessness. Even when we don't see God working in our lives, we rejoice in God because we trust and hope in his promise of salvation. Today's readings are Isaiah 25-27, Habakkuk 3, and Proverbs 11:5-8. 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 203. Wow. And we're reading from Isaiah 25, 26, and 27. We're also reading Habakkuk

chapter three, the conclusion of Habakkuk. We're also reading Proverbs chapter 11, verses five through eight. 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, receive daily episodes and daily updates. Today is day 203. As I said, we're reading Isaiah 25 through 27,

Habakkuk chapter three, Proverbs 11, verses five through eight. The book of the prophet Isaiah, chapter 25, praise for deliverance from oppression. Oh Lord, you are my God. I will exalt you. I will praise your name for you have done wonderful things. Plans formed of old, faithful and sure. For you have made the city a heap, the fortified city a ruin. The palace of strangers is a city no more. It will never be rebuilt. Therefore, strong peoples will glorify you, cities of ruthless nations will fear you. For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the

needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat. For the blast of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall, like heat in a dry place. You subdue the noise of the strangers as heat by the shade of a cloud, so the song of the ruthless is stilled. On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of choice wines, of fat things full of marrow, of choice wines well refined. And he will destroy on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,

and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, Behold, this is our God. We have waited for him that he might save us. This is the Lord. We have waited for him. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain, and Moab shall be trodden down in his place, as straw is trodden down in a dung pit. And he will spread out his hands in the midst of it, as a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim. But the Lord will lay low his pride together with the skill of his hands. And the high fortifications of his walls he will bring down, lay low, and cast to the ground, even to the dust. Chapter 26, Judah's Song of Praise to God.

In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah. We have a strong city. He sets up salvation as walls and bulwarks. Open the gates that the righteous nation which keeps faith may enter in. You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever. For the Lord God is an everlasting rock. For he has brought low the inhabitants of the height, the lofty city. He lays it low, low the inhabitants of the height, the lofty city. He lays it low, lays it low to the ground,

casts it to the dust. The foot tramples it, the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy. The way of the righteous is level. You make smooth the path of the righteous. In the path of your judgments, O Lord, we wait for you. Your memorial name is the desire of our soul. My soul yearns for you in the night. My spirit within me earnestly seeks you. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. If favor is shown to the wicked, he does not learn righteousness. In the land of uprightness, he deals perversely and does not see the majesty of the Lord. O Lord, your hand is lifted up, but they see it not. Let them see your zeal for your people and be ashamed. Let the fire for your adversaries consume them.

O Lord, you will ordain peace for us, for you have wrought for us all our works. O Lord, our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us, but your name alone we acknowledge. Other lords besides you have ruled over us, but your name alone we acknowledge. They are dead. They will not live. They are shades. They will not arise. To that end, you have visited them with destruction and wiped out all remembrance of them.

But you have increased the nation, O Lord. You have increased the nation. You are glorified. You have enlarged all the borders of the land. O Lord, in distress they sought you. They poured out a prayer when your chastening was upon them. Like a woman with child who writhes and cries out in her pangs when she is near her time, so were we because of you, O Lord.

We were with child. We writhed. But we gave birth only to wind. We have wrought no deliverance in the earth, and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen. Your dead shall live. Their bodies shall rise. O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy, for your dew is a dew of light,

and on the land of the shades you will let it fall. Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourselves for a little while until the wrath is passed. For behold, the Lord is coming forth out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. And the earth will disclose the blood shed upon her and will no more cover her slain. Chapter 27, Israel's Expiation.

In that day, the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan, the fleeing serpent, Israel's Expiation. Lest anyone harm it, I guard it night and day. I have no wrath. Would that I had thorns and briars to battle, I would set out against them. I would burn them up together. Or let them lay hold of my protection. Let them make peace with me. Let them make peace with me. In days to come, Jacob shall take root. Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots

and fill the whole world with fruit. Has he struck them down, as he struck those who struck them? Or have they been slain as their slayers were slain? Measure by measure, by exile you contended with them. He removed them with his fierce blast in the day of the east wind. Therefore, by this the guilt of Jacob will be expiated, and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin. When he makes all the stones of the will be expiated, and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin. When he makes all the stones of the altars like chalk stones crushed to pieces, no asherim or incense altars will remain standing, for the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted

and forsaken like the wilderness. There the calf grazes, there he lies down and strips its branches. When its bows are dry, they are broken. Women come and make a fire of them. For this is a people without discernment. Therefore, he who made them will not have compassion on them. He that formed them will show them no favor. In that day, from the river Euphrates to the brook of Egypt, the Lord will thresh out the grain,

and you will be gathered one by one, O people of Israel. And in that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain at Jerusalem. The Book of Habakkuk, Chapter 3, Habakkuk's Prayer A Prayer of Habakkuk the Prophet, according to Shigianoth O Lord, I have heard the report of you, and your work, O Lord, I fear. In the midst of the years, renew it. In the midst of the years, make it known. In wrath, remember mercy.

God came from Taman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. His glory covered the heavens and the earth was full of his praise. His brightness was like the light. Rays flashed from his hand and there he veiled his power. Before him went pestilence and plague followed close behind. He stood and measured the earth. He looked and shook the nations. Then the eternal mountains were scattered. The everlasting hills sank low. His ways were as of

old. I saw the tents of Kushan in affliction. The curtains of the land of Midian trembled. Was your wrath against the rivers, O Lord? Was your anger against the rivers or your indignation against the sea? When you rode upon your horses, upon your chariot of victory, you stripped the sheath from your bow and put the arrows to the string. You split the earth with rivers. The mountains saw you and writhed. The raging waters swept on. The deep gave forth its voice. It lifted its hands on high. The sun and moon stood still in their habitation. At the light of your arrows, they sped. At the flash of your glittering spear, you bestrode the earth in fury. You trampled the

nations in anger. You went forth for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. You crushed the head of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck. You pierced with your shafts the head of his warriors, who came like a whirlwind to scatter me, rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret. You trampled the sea with your horses, the surging of mighty waters. I hear, and my body trembles. My lips quiver at the sound. Rottenness enters into my bones. My steps totter beneath me. I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon the people who invade us. Though the fig tree does not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines,

the produce of the olive fail, and the fields yield no food. The flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. God the Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like deer's feet. He makes me tread upon my high places. To the choir master with stringed instruments. The book of Proverbs chapter 11 verses 5 through 8. The book of Proverbs chapter 11 verses 5 through 8. perishes, and the expectation of the godless comes to nothing. The righteous is delivered from trouble, and the wicked gets into it instead. Father in heaven, give you praise, and we thank you. We thank you because, gosh, Lord, in all of this, we want to be counted among those who are

righteous, not those who are wicked, not those who are unfaithful. And yet we strive to be wise. We strive to be good. We strive to belong to you. But so often, Lord, we fail to belong to you. We fail to be good. We fail to be yours. And so we ask you that when we are wicked, then when we are treacherous, when we are not righteous, we ask you to make us so, because only you, only you and your grace can make us the people that we're called to be, the people that you've redeemed us to be. Lord God, what Jesus made possible, your Holy Spirit makes actual,

and so we trust in your Spirit to come to us now and to make us new. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Okay, so we've got a lot of chapters in Isaiah today, and so good because, again, once again, chapters 1 through 39, the book of woe, the book of condemnation, chapters 40 through 66, the book of consolation, and yet, gosh, today, how good is this? Chapter 25, 26, and 27, what we have is praise for delivery from oppression.

We have Judah's song of praise to God. We have Israel's expiation. We have just all of this hope that's plopped right down in the middle of this call to repentance and this promise of judgment and promise of the fact that if you don't turn back to the Lord, here's what's going to happen. In fact, Isaiah is saying very, very clearly, here's what's going to happen. You will be brought into captivity. You will be brought into the land of Babylon. You will be brought into a land that's not yours anymore. You'll be taken from the land of promise and brought to a foreign land. And yet here's chapter 25. How incredible is

this? Chapter 25, verse six, this is, and on this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples, a feast of fat things, feast of choice wines. He will destroy on this mountain, the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever. And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces and the reproach of his people. He will take away from all the earth. Gosh. And it goes on. We'll just talk about that in a second, but here is this promise of the day of the Messiah. This is the promise of that day of redemption. And that's what you're saying in our prayers.

You know, God has created us. He's also redeemed us. That here in our brokenness, God has met us with his mercy. And it goes on to say, now this is a prayer that's often, or the scripture that's often read at funerals, Isaiah 25.

And it's so powerful, right? Because the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces. Ah, and it will be said on that day, this is verse nine of chapter 25. It will be said on that day, behold, this is our God. We have waited for him that he might save us. And this is the Lord.

We have waited for him. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. And this is the promise. This is just the promise of God 700 years before Jesus. Behold, this is our God. That when we look at Jesus, that's what we say. That's John on the river Jordan, right? Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

At every mass, we get to say, behold, the lamb of God takes away the sins of the world. This is our God who has come to save us. Let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us. It is incredible. And just what a gift, an incredible gift. In chapter 26, again, more praise of God. In chapter 27, talking about how the Lord will make a full expiation that at some point, ultimately, even though God will bring about this judgment, it's not going to be a permanent judgment. It is a temporary judgment oriented towards conversion, oriented towards healing. And I just, man, what a gift. That's Isaiah chapter 25, 26, 27, but this is Habakkuk.

Remember Habakkuk is preaching about the reality that what's going to happen is Babylon is going to come and Babylon will destroy the nation of Israel or, you know, the kingdom of Judah in the South. But then this is God's answer because God has made those five woes we heard about yesterday. But then today we have Habakkuk's prayer. And the prayer is here's God's answer. And God's answer is basically, again, redemption. And this is one of the places where we get to hear this truth. We get to hear in the depths of our heart

what God wants to do, that he wants to bring his people back. It'll be a new Exodus. That here is, remember, in the old Exodus, in the book of Exodus, we have the people of Israel in slavery in Egypt. And what God is saying is there's going to be a new Exodus that you will be enslaved

essentially in Babylon, exiled in Babylon. And even there, I will bring you back. There has been an old Exodus. There will be a new Exodus. And this is the promise. And this is incredible, not only because this is God's faithfulness, but also because we know of God's coming faithfulness is steadfastness, right? Not just coming faithfulness,

but at some point this will be reality. In the meantime, what do we do? This is the big thing. This is the last thing here. In the meantime, what do we do? Since we know God is faithful and we know he's going to bring us out of this valley of a whore, right?

To a door of hope. We know he's going to bring us from Egypt into the promised land. We know he's going to bring us from exile back home. What do we do in those times? And this is incredible. At the end of chapter three, I invite you just to, you hear this now, but maybe go back and read it and underline these words, write them down. It says, I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon the people who invade us. I will quietly wait, steadfastly wait. God is steadfast in his faithfulness. I will quietly wait for the day of trouble

to come upon the people who invade us. He's going to fight. It goes on to say, though the fig tree does not blossom, nor fruit beyond the vines, right? This is not, nothing's going well. The produce of the olive will fail and the fields yield no food. The flock be cut off from the fold

and there be no herd in the stalls. All these things, like there's nothing. We have no fig trees, no fruit on the vine. The olive fails, the field has no food, no flocks, no herds. Verse 18, chapter 3, Habakkuk, yet, yet, I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. That yet is a big yet. That yet is everything. Everything in faith, everything in one's life hangs on that one yet. Even though nothing is going right, even though everything is falling apart, even though all the things I worked for, all the things I hoped for,

all the things that, God, you promised, even though they aren't here yet, yet I will rejoice in the Lord and I will joy in the God of my salvation. God the Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like deer's feet. He makes me tread upon my high places. What an incredible gift, man, to be able to pray with that kind of faith. And that's what we do. You know, every time you press play every single day, this is day 203, every day for

the last 203 days, you've pressed play. What that means is you've pressed play in any season, every season for the last 203 days. It's not just been great days. It's not just been, not just been days where you know the Lord is present, not just days where everything you worked for is coming true. Not just days when there was God's faithfulness, obviously present and active in your life, but even low days, dark days, horrible days, you kept pressing play. And you kept saying, Lord,

I know you're going to speak to me. I knew you have a word for me. So you have said for 203 days, chapter three, verse 18 of the prophet Habakkuk, no matter what yet, I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. Wow. Just incredible. I'm so proud of you. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. Let's pray for each other because, because it's hard to pray that prayer sometimes. So we need to sometimes pray it for each other. Anyways, my name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.