The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 207: The Lord Will Come (2023)

Episode Date: July 26, 2023

Fr. Mike points out the passages that highlight the coming of God, and asks us to reflect on whether our response is hope and excitement, or fear and dread. Today's readings are Isaiah 34-36, Baruch 3-4, and Proverbs 11:21-24. 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 207. We are reading from Isaiah chapters 34, 35, and 36. Also the middle of Baruch, Baruch chapters three and four, as well as Proverbs chapter 11, verses 21 through

24. 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 to receive daily episodes because I love, I know how much you love to be reminded to subscribe. So why would I stop now? I mean, for crying out loud, it's day 207. If I stopped asking you to subscribe now, I don't know who I would be, you know? Just what would this podcast even be? What would be the, I wasn't going to say what the word of God would be, but that, I don't want to go too far. I don't want to go too far to make a joke. Anyways,

as I said, it is day 207 and we are reading Isaiah 34, 35 and 36 Baruch chapter three and four and Proverbs chapter 11 verses 21 through 24. The book of the prophet Isaiah chapter 34, the wrath of the Lord. Their slain shall be cast out, and the stench of their corpses shall rise. The mountains shall flow with their blood. All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree. For my sword has drunk its fill of the heavens. Behold, it descends for judgment upon Edom, upon the people I have doomed. The Lord has a sword. It is sated with blood. It is gorged with fat, with the blood of lambs and

goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom. Wild oxen shall fall with them, and young steers with the mighty bulls. Their land shall be soaked with blood, and their soil made rich with fat. For the Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion. And the streams of Edom shall be turned into pitch, and her soil into brimstone. Her land shall become burning pitch. Night and day it shall not be quenched. Its smoke shall go up forever. From generation

to generation it shall lie waste. None shall pass through it forever and ever, but the hawk and the porcupine shall possess it. The owl and the raven shall dwell in it. He shall stretch the line of confusion over it and the plummet of chaos over its nobles. They shall name it No Kingdom There, and all its princes shall be nothing. Thorns shall grow over its strongholds, nettles and thistles in its fortresses. It shall be the haunt of jackals, an abode for ostriches, and wild beasts shall meet with hyenas. The satyr shall cry to his fellow, yes, there shall the night creature alight and find for herself a resting place. There shall the owl nest and lay

and hatch and gather her young in her shadow. Yes, there shall the kites be gathered, each one with her mate. Seek and read from the book of the Lord. Not one of these things shall be missing. None shall be without her mate. For the mouth of the Lord has commanded and his spirit has gathered them. He has cast the lot for them. His hand has portioned it out to them with the line. Chapter 35. The Lord will come to save. The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad. The desert shall rejoice and blossom. Like the lily. It shall blossom

abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God. Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are of a fearful heart, be strong, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The burning sands shall become a pool and the thirsty ground springs of water. The haunt of jackals shall become a swamp. The grass shall become reeds and rushes.

And a highway shall be there and it shall be called the holy way. The unclean shall not pass over it and fools shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it. They shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing.

Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Chapter 36. Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem. In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. And the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh from Lachshish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the father's field. And there came out to him Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna,

the secretary, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder. And the Rabshakeh said to them, Say to Hezekiah, thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, on what do you rest this confidence of yours? Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? On whom do you now rely that you have rebelled against me? Behold, you are relying on Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to all who rely upon him. But if you say to me, we rely on the Lord our God, is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, you shall worship before this altar? Come now, make a

wager with my master, the king of Assyria. I will give you 2,000 horses if you are able on your part to set riders upon them. How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master's servants when you rely on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? Moreover, is it without the Lord that I have come up against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it. Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we destroy it. Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall. But the Rabshakeh said, Has my master sent me to speak

these words to your master and to you and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine? Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah, Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. Thus says the king, Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you. Do not let Hezekiah make you rely on the Lord by saying, The Lord will surely deliver us. This city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Do not listen to Hezekiah. For thus says the king of Assyria, Make your peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat of his own vine,

and every one of his own fig tree, and every one of you will drink the water of his own cistern, until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards. Beware, lest Hezekiah mislead you by saying, The Lord will deliver us. Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? Who among all the gods of these countries have delivered their countries out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand? Then Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of the Rabshakeh. The Book of Baruch, Chapter 3. In Praise of Wisdom. O Lord Almighty, God of Israel,

the soul in anguish and the wearied spirit cries out to you. Hear, O Lord, and have mercy, for we have sinned before you. For you are enthroned forever, and we are perishing forever. O Lord Almighty, God of Israel, hear now the prayer of the dead of Israel and of the sons of those who sinned before you, who did not heed the voice of the Lord their God, so that calamities have clung to us. Remember not the iniquities of our fathers, but in this crisis remember your power and your name. For you are the Lord our God, and you, O Lord, will we praise. For you have put the fear of you in our hearts, in order that we should call upon your name,

and we will praise you in our exile. For we have put away from our hearts all the iniquity of our Hear the commandments of life, O Israel. Give ear and learn wisdom. Why is it, O Israel, why is it that you are in the land of your enemies, that you are growing old in a foreign country, that you are defiled with the dead, that you are counted among those in Hades? You have forsaken the fountain of wisdom. If you had walked in the way of God,

you would be dwelling in peace forever. Learn where there is wisdom, where there is strength, where there is understanding, that you may at the same time discern where there is length of days and life, where there is light for the eyes and peace. Who has found her place and who has entered her storehouses? Where are the princes of the nations and those who rule over the beasts on the earth, those who have sport with the birds of the air and who hoard up silver and gold in which men trust and there is no end to their getting, those who scheme to get silver and are anxious,

whose labors are beyond measure? They have vanished and gone down to Hades, and others have arisen in their place. Young men have seen the light of day, and have dwelt upon the earth, but they have not learned the way to knowledge, nor understood her paths, nor laid hold of her. Their sons have strayed far from her way. She has not been heard of in Canaan, nor seen in Timan. The sons of Hagar, who seek for understanding on the earth, the merchants of Moran and Timon, the storytellers and the seekers for understanding, have not learned the way to wisdom, nor given thought to her paths.

O Israel, how great is the house of God, and how vast the territory that he possesses! It is great and has no bounds, it is high and immeasurable. The giants were born there, who were famous of old, great in stature, expert in war. God did not choose them, nor give them the way to knowledge. So they perished because they had no wisdom. They perished through their folly.

Who has gone up to heaven and taken her and brought her down from the clouds? Who has gone over the sea and found her and will buy her for pure gold? No one knows the way to her or is concerned about the path to her. But he who knows all things knows her. He found her by his understanding. He who prepared the earth for all time, filled it with four-footed creatures, he who sends forth the light and it goes, called it and it obeyed him in fear. The stars shone in their

watches and were glad. He called them and they said, here we are. They shone with gladness for him who made them. This is our God. No other can be compared to him. He found the whole way to knowledge and gave her to Jacob, his servant and to Israel whom he loved. Afterward, she appeared upon earth and lived among men. Chapter 4 Encouragement for Israel She is the book of the commandments of God, and the law that endures forever. All who hold her fast will live, and those who forsake her will die.

Turn, O Jacob, and take her. Walk toward the shining of her light. Do not give your glory to another or your advantages to an alien people. Happy are we, O Israel, for we know what is pleasing to God. Take courage, my people, O memorial of Israel. It was not for destruction that you were sold to the nations, but you were handed over to your enemies because you angered God. For you provoked him who made you by sacrificing to demons and not to God. You forgot the everlasting God who brought you up and you grieved Jerusalem who reared you. For she saw the wrath that came upon you from God

and she said, listen, you neighbors of Zion, God has brought great sorrow upon me for I have seen the captivity of my sons and daughters, which the Everlasting brought upon them. With joy I nurtured them, but I sent them away with weeping and sorrow. Let no one rejoice over me, a widow and bereaved of many. I was left desolate because of the sins of my children, because they turned away from the law of God. For they had no regard for his statutes. They did not walk in the ways of God's commandments, nor tread the paths of discipline in his righteousness. Let the neighbors of Zion come. Remember the capture of my sons and daughters, which the everlasting brought upon them. For he brought against them a nation from afar, a shameless nation of a strange language,

who had no respect for an old man and had no pity for a child. They led away the widow's beloved sons and bereaved the lonely woman of her daughters. But I, how can I help you? For he who brought these calamities upon you will deliver you from the hand of your enemies. Go, my children, go, for I have been left desolate. I have taken off the robe of peace and put on the sackcloth of my supplication. I will cry to the everlasting all my days. Take courage, my children. Cry to God, and he will deliver you from the power and hand of the enemy. For I have put my hope in the everlasting to save you, and joy has come to me from the Holy One.

Because of the mercy which soon will come to me from the Holy One, because of the mercy which soon will come to you from your everlasting Savior. For I sent you out with sorrow and weeping, but God will give you back to me with joy and gladness forever. For as the neighbors of Zion have now seen your capture, so they will soon see your salvation by God, which will come to you with great glory and with the splendor of the everlasting. My children, endure with patience the wrath that has come upon you from God. The enemy has overtaken you,

but you will soon see their destruction and will tread upon their necks. My tender sons have traveled rough roads. They were carried away like a flock carried off by the enemy. Take courage, my children, and cry to God, for you will be remembered by him who brought this upon you. For just as you planned to go astray from God, return with tenfold zeal to seek him.

For he who brought these calamities upon you will bring you everlasting joy with your salvation. Take courage, O Jerusalem, for he who named you will comfort you. Wretched will be those who afflicted you and rejoiced at your fall. Wretched will be the cities which your children served as slaves.

Wretched will be the city which received your sons. For just as she rejoiced at your fall and was glad for your ruin, so she will be grieved at her own desolation. And that will take away her pride in her great population, and her insolence will be turned to grief. For fire will come upon her from the everlasting for many days, and for a long time she will be inhabited by demons. Look toward the east, O Jerusalem, and see the joy that is coming to you from God. Behold, your sons are coming, whom you sent away.

They are coming, gathered from east and west, at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing in the glory of God. The book of Proverbs, chapter 11, verses 21 through 24. Be assured, an evil man will not go unpunished, but those who are righteous will be delivered. Like a gold ring in a swine's snout is a beautiful woman without discretion. The desire of the righteous ends only in good, the expectation of the wicked in wrath. One man gives freely, yet grows all the richer, and another withholds what he should give and only suffers want.

Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. Oh, Lord, we love you today and every day. But gosh, God, thank you so much for your word. Thank you for your encouragement that you give to us from Baruch. Thank you for even the connections you give to us from Baruch. Thank you for even the connections, I think, Lord God, that we get to make today in the book of the prophet Isaiah. And thank you for your willingness to continue to speak to us every single day, even days when we miss days, when we have to pick it back up. Thank you for your faithfulness. Because even on days

when we don't listen, even on days when we choose to ignore your voice, you continue to speak and you continue to bring us back to you. Lord God, help us on our worst day. Help us on our worst day right now, God. We pray for the worst day of our life that even in that day, we can hear your voice. And on that day, we can be faithful

to your completely unstoppable and faithful love. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Okay, so gosh, here we go. Isaiah, three chapters in Isaiah. So, you know, we got a little bit going on here. But I love about this, well, how I was going to say, the judgment on the nations. We love that.

I'm not going to say that. But what I'm talking about is chapter 34 talks about the wrath of the Lord, and it's upon the nations, right? So this is the reality that this is not a condemnation of God's wrath on Israel. So chapter 34 is on Edom. Remember the Edomites? So this is the people who are against Israel. So even in the book of Woe, right? We're still in the first one to 39. We're going to switch over to the book of consolation in a couple of days. But even in the book of Woe, chapters one through 39, here we are in chapter 34, we have so much encouragement. And one of the pieces of encouragement can sound like a condemnation and it is, but it's

a condemnation of the nations. It's a condemnation of Edom. And what it basically means is here's verse eight in chapter 34 for the Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion, basically saying, yes, there are enemies who have come against my people. And I'm not just here to judge my people. a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion. Basically saying, yes, there are enemies who have come against my people. And I'm not just here to judge my people. I'm here to stop their enemies. And that is, I think that's an incredible, incredible gift that God just continues to remind us of. So one of the descriptors I want to just highlight, because this is going to happen

again and again. It's already happened a number of times, but when it comes to God's wrath or God's judgment, it talks about places being made into wilderness. So you might have noticed that I said the word porcupine today, and I did because it talks about the hawk and the porcupine shall not possess it. The owl and the raven, or they shall possess it. The owl and raven shall dwell in it. Basically, when something becomes a wilderness in the Bible, that's not a good thing. That's a bad thing. So we in the West or the 21st century, wherever we are right now, I think we have a little bit of a romantic vision of wilderness. We think, yeah, that wilderness is where you escape to. Wilderness is where

pristine beauty is found. Wilderness is where beauty and gentleness and peace and nature, all these things, which is part of that. But we would leave civilization to go to the wilderness. Whereas in ancient times, not just in the Middle East, but in ancient times around the world, which is part of that. But we would leave civilization to go to the wilderness. Whereas in ancient times, not just in the Middle East, but in ancient times around the world, they would see nature, the wilderness for what it is. It is dangerous. It is uncivilized. It is uncomfortable. It is where you can die. And so, and in civilization, right? Culture or cities, towns, that is where you want to live. And so when a place goes from being wilderness to a city, they saw that that's a great thing because that means

you're safer, right? That means you're more protected. That means that, you know, human life is thriving. But when something would go from a city to wilderness, we, again, we might think, yeah, that's good. But they would say, no, that's bad. So just so, you know, regardless of what your current perspective is on this, when we hear that God is going to make a place, a wilderness, that is judgment on that place. That is not a positive thing. So this just FYI. But in chapter 35 talks about how the Lord will come to save the people of Israel.

And once again, oh gosh, this is so good. Chapter 35, the second half of verse two, it says, they shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God. It goes on, strengthen the weak hands, make firm the feeble knees, say to those who are of a fearful heart, be strong, fear not, behold, your God will come with vengeance. Here with recompense of God, he will come and save you. And it goes on to what will happen in that day. And it's an incredible gift.

The arrival of the Lord is this image that is going to be given to us so many more times. It already has been given to us many times, but the prophets will continually talk about the day of the Lord, talk about the return of the Lord, the arrival of the Lord. He will come and save you. Here comes our God. Behold, he comes. And one of the things we get to ask ourselves is, is that something that when I hear it, that the Lord is coming, that I'm filled with excitement and hope, or I'm filled with fear and dread? Because, I mean, we really have to just be honest with ourselves.

Okay, God is coming. If we were to say, okay, today at the end of this podcast, or maybe give yourself an hour between the end of the podcast and the day of the Lord, the moment the Lord is going to arrive in your life. Would we have a sense of hope and excitement or will we have a sense of dread and a fear? A lot of what determines our response to this are two things I would say. One is our image of God. So some of you might have grown up with the word that would say, hey, wait till your father

gets home. And that was not a happy thing. Maybe that was just a mildly annoying thing because you knew you were going to get in trouble. Maybe it was even worse because you might not have had a good and loving father. But that is the image, right? We have of, okay, wait till your father gets home. Or it could be like, wait till your father gets home and you just can't wait because

we're going to do this amazing thing when your father gets home and we're going to do it with him and you are so excited to be able to do this thing with him. Again, so much of how we respond to what the prophets are saying, like the reward of this whole thing is that God will be with you. But if my vision of God, my image of God is someone I don't actually want to spend time with, then my response internally might not be of hope and of excitement, but it might be of fear and of dread. The other factor that weighs in on this is whether I've been living like my father, like

our father has called us to, right? If I have not yet repented, then yeah, I'm going to be not as excited about the return of the Lord. And so there are two things that I think we get to continually come back to as we continue to journey through the books of these prophets is when I hear the day of the Lord, what is my image of our God? What is the image of God? If he doesn't inspire hope and excitement, but it rather inspires dread and fear, maybe

I can ask God, God, please heal my image of you. And also I could say, God, heal my own heart. Heal my own heart. Heal my image of me. Because there are some people who, some of us, we need to repent always. And some of us are doing well. You're following the Lord, but you might hold on to some toxic shame over yourself and are afraid to look up and see the Lord and let him see you truly. So wherever we're at, just like we got to pray for each other. Now, this isn't that we got to pray for each other here. We're going to close. We have a couple more things to say. So we do have to pray for each other because that is a big, big challenge for a lot of us, big call for a lot of us, our image of God

and our image of ourselves and how the Lord sees us, whether he's calling us repentance or he's just calling us to let him love us. Now, chapter 36 is, you should be so excited. I was so excited when I saw chapter 36 of Isaiah, because it's a retelling of a story we've heard twice already in Chronicles and in Kings of Sennacherib, coming up there with the Rapshaka, right? And he's reading in front of, or he's speaking the words of the king of Assyria,

Sennacherib, to all the people. And then you have, you know, Eliakim and Shebna and Joah are like, yeah, dude, speak to us in Aramaic, not in Judean, the language of Judah, because we don't want to hear these people. And we don't want these people to hear what you're saying. And the Rapshachai has the great words basically saying, yeah, listen, they're going to be the ones who suffer as well. So they should know all these words. And it's just good, right, to be able to hear a story again and realize I know this one.

This is awesome. So you guys, you're getting to know the Bible. So you actually know what's gonna happen in chapter 37, which is pretty stellar, pretty amazing. And it just gets me excited that we get to be on this journey together and hear these stories and let them become part of our hearts

and part of our lives as well. One last note when it comes to Baruch. Baruch is so positive. I just, if all prophets were positive like Baruch, it would be, I don't know if we'd change, but we'd be happy because he's all about encouragement. Man, in chapters three and chapter four, Baruch is just talking about, listen, God is coming. Again, that he's on his way. That's what the prophets keep saying. But one of the things that he talks about in chapter three is wisdom and wisdom personified. Man, oh man, this is incredible because it talks about how people didn't even look for wisdom. They perished through their folly. They didn't even look. They had no idea how to

find wisdom. And so what's going to happen in the end of chapter three, here's what Baruch says. He says, this is our God. No other can be compared to him. He found the whole way to knowledge and gave her to Jacob, his servant and to Israel, whom he loved. Afterward, she appeared upon earth This is verse 37 of Baruch. Oh my gosh, what's this? Afterward, she appeared upon earth and lived among men. If this isn't a type or at least some kind of foreshadowing of the incarnation of the second person of the Trinity, the son of the father who became man and dwelt among us. I don't know. I don't know what it is, but that's just a stellar, so incredible.

And what a gift to be able to last little note here in chapter four. And that will conclude us for today is in chapter four. One of the things that Baruch continues to say is he does, I mean, he doesn't sugarcoat, he doesn't ignore the fact that Israel has forgotten the Lord and has grieved the Lord. And he keeps saying that. He says, you've forgotten the Lord. You've grieved the Lord. You angered God. You were handed over to your enemies because of this.

But then he also goes on to say, but he, and this is the big words, right? You've grieved the Lord. You've angered the Lord. You've forgotten the Lord. You've forsaken the Lord. But he, but he remembers you. But he comes to save you. That yep, there were others who forgot him,

but he will remember you. There were times when you forsook him, but he will save you. And that is so incredible. Therefore, Baruch says, take courage, my children, cry to God and he will save you. And that is so incredible. Therefore, Baruch says, take courage, my children, cry to God, and he will deliver you from the power and hand of the enemy. For I have put my hope in the everlasting to save you.

And joy has come to me from the Holy One. And that is such a gift and such a great word for us today. Let's 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.