The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 211: Called by Name (2023)

Episode Date: July 30, 2023

Fr. Mike emphasizes our title as children of God as we read about the tragedy of the Babylonian exile. Even in our lowest moments, God wants us to know that he has called us each by name and has called us his, because a good Father does not abandon his children. Today's readings are Isaiah 43-44, Ezekiel 4-5, and Proverbs 12:5-8. 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 211, that's 2-1-1. We are reading from Isaiah chapter 43 and 44. We are in the book of consolation and we're also reading Ezekiel chapters four and five. We're also reading

Proverbs chapter 12 verses five through eight. 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. You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe and receiving daily episodes and daily updates because it's the day of 211. And we are just into the book of consolation, starting with chapter 40. We are now in chapter 43 and 44. We're also in Ezekiel chapters four and five. Remember, Ezekiel had this incredible vision of the Lord and his glory, the son of, he's the son of man, which basically just means he's a human being. That's going to change in Daniel chapter 7, but for now, whenever

the Lord God calls Ezekiel son of man, he's just talking like, hey bro, you're a human being. But we're going to hear Ezekiel 4 and 5, the way in which Ezekiel is called to be a prophet through his actions, not just through his words. It's through his words and his actions. And also that's Ezekiel 4 and 5 in Proverbs chapter 12, verses 5 through 8. The book of the prophet Isaiah chapter 43, the Lord is redeemer of Israel. But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel, He who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel. Fear not, for I have redeemed you.

I have called you by name. You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned. And the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you because you are precious in my eyes and honored and I love you.

I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. Fear not for I am with you. I will bring your offspring from the east and from the west I will gather you. I will say to the north, give up, and to the south, do not withhold. Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth. Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made. Bring forth the people who are blind, yet have eyes, who are deaf, yet have ears. Let all the nations gather together and let the peoples assemble. Who among them can declare this and show us the former things? Let them bring their witnesses to justify them and let them hear and say, it is true. You are my witnesses, says the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand

that I am he. Before me no God was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no Savior. I declared and saved and proclaimed when there was no strange God among you, and you are my witnesses, says the Lord. I am God, and also henceforth I am he. There is none who can deliver from my hand. I work, and who can hinder it? Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. For your sake I will send to Babylon, and break down all the bars, and the shouting of the Chaldeans will be turned into lamentations. I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King. Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior.

They lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick. Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs forth. Do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches. For I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself, that they might declare my praise. Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob, but you have been weary of me, O Israel. You have not brought me your sheep for burnt offerings or honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings or wearied you with frankincense.

You have not brought me sweet cane with money or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices, but you have burdened me with your sins. You have wearied me with your iniquities. I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. Put me in remembrance. Let us argue together. Set forth your case that you may be proved right. Your first father sinned, and your mediators transgressed against me. Therefore I profaned the princes of the sanctuary. I delivered Jacob to utter

destruction, and Israel to reviling. Chapter 44. God's's blessing on Israel. For I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground. I will pour my spirit upon your descendants and my blessing on your offspring. They shall spring up like grass amid waters, like willows by flowing streams. This one will say, I am the Lord's. Another will call himself by the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand the Lord's and surname himself by the name of Israel. Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts. I am the first, and I am the last. Besides me there is no God. Who is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and set it forth before me. Who has announced from of old the things to come? Let them tell us what is yet to be.

Fear not, nor be afraid. Have I not told you from of old and declared it? And you are my witnesses. Is there a God besides me? There is no rock. I know not any. The Folly of Idol Worship All who make idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit. Their witnesses neither see nor know that they may be put to shame. Who fashions a god or casts an image that is profitable for nothing? Behold, all his fellows shall be put to shame, and the craftsmen are but men. Let them all assemble, let them stand forth, they shall be terrified, they shall be put to

shame together. The ironsmith fashions it and works it over the coals. He shapes it with hammers and forges it with his strong arm. He becomes hungry and his strength fails. He drinks no water and is faint. The carpenter stretches a line. He marks it out with a pencil. He fashions it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house. He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a holm tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself. He kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also, he makes a god and worships it.

He makes it a graven image and falls down before it. Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats flesh. He roasts meat and is satisfied. Also, he warms himself and says, Aha, I am warm. I have seen the fire. And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol,

and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, Israel is not forgotten. and their minds so that they cannot understand. No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, half of it I burned in the fire. I also baked bread on its coals. I roasted flesh and have eaten. And shall I make the residue of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood? He feeds on ashes. A deluded mind has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, Is there not a lie in my right hand? Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant. I formed you. You are my servant.

O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me. I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you. Sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done it. Shout, O depths of the earth. Break forth into singing, O mountains, O forest and every tree in it. For the Lord has redeemed Jacob and will be glorified in Israel. Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb. I am the Lord who made all things, who stretched out the heavens alone, who spread out the earth, who was with me, who frustrates the omens of liars and makes fools of diviners, who turns wise men back and makes their knowledge

foolish, who confirms the word of his servant and performs the counsel of his messengers, who says of Jerusalem, Who says to the deep, Who says of Cyrus, Saying of Jerusalem, The book of the temple your foundation shall be laid. The book of the prophet Ezekiel, chapter 4. A brick, the siege of Jerusalem portrayed. And you, O son of man, take a brick and lay it before you, and portray upon it a city, even Jerusalem, and put siege works against it, and build a siege wall against it, and cast up a mound against it, set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it round about. And

take an iron plate, and place it as an iron wall between you and the city, and set your face toward it, and let it be in a state of siege, and press the siege against it. This is a sign for the house of Israel. Then lie upon your left side, and I will lay the punishment of the house of Israel upon you. For the number of the days that you lie upon it, you shall bear their punishment. For I assign to you a number of days, three hundred and ninety days, equal to the number of the years of their punishment. So long shall you bear the punishment of the house of Israel. And when you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side and bear the punishment of the

house of Judah. Forty days I assign you, a day for each year. And you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared, and you shall prophesy against the city. And behold, I will put cords upon you, so that you cannot turn from one side to the other till you have completed the days of your siege. And you take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt, and put them into a single vessel, and make bread of them. During the number of days that you lie on your side, three hundred and ninety days, you shall eat it. And the food which you shall eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day. Once a day you shall eat it. And the food which you shall eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day. Once a day you shall eat it. And water you shall drink by measure, a sixth part of a hin.

Once a day you shall drink. And you shall eat it as a barley cake, baking it in their sight on human dung. And the Lord said, Thus shall the people of Israel eat their bread unclean among the nations where I will drive them. Then I said, ah, Lord God, behold, I have never defiled myself from my youth up till now. I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has foul flesh come into my mouth. Then he said to me, see, I will let you have cow's dung instead of human dung on which you may prepare your bread. Moreover, he said to me, son of man, behold, on which you may prepare your bread. Moreover, he said to me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem. They shall eat bread by weight

and with fearfulness, and they shall drink water by measure and in dismay. I will do this, that they may lack bread and water, and look at one another in dismay, and waste away under their punishment. Chapter 5. A Sharp Sword. And you, O son of man, take a sharp sword, use it as a barber's razor, and pass it over your head and your beard. Then take balances for weighing, and divide the hair. A third part you shall burn in the fire in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are completed. And a third part you shall take, and strike with the sword round about the city. And a third part you shall take and strike with the sword round about the city. And a third part you shall scatter to the wind, and I will unsheathe the sword after them. And you shall take from these a small number and bind them in the skirts of your robe.

And of these, again, you shall take some and cast them into the fire and burn them in the fire. And from there a fire will come forth into all the house of Israel. Thus says the Lord God, This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the center of the nations with countries round about her, and she has wickedly rebelled against all my ordinances more than the nations and against my statutes more than the countries round about her, by rejecting my ordinances and not walking in my statutes.

Therefore, thus says the Lord God, Because you are more turbulent than the nations that are round about you and have not walked in my statutes. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, because you are more turbulent than the nations that are round about you and have not walked in my statutes or kept my ordinances, but have acted according to the ordinances of the nations that are round about you. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, behold, I, even I am against you and I will execute judgments in the midst of you in the sight of the nations. And because of all your abominations, I will do with you what I have never yet done and the like of which I will never do again. Therefore, fathers shall eat their sons in the midst of you and sons shall eat their fathers and I will execute judgments on you. And any of you who survive, I will scatter to all the winds.

Wherefore, as I live, says the Lord God, surely because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will cut you down. My eye will not spare and I will have no pity. A third part of you shall die of pestilence and be consumed with famine in the midst of you. A third part shall fall by the sword round about you. And a third part I will scatter to all the winds, and will unsheathe the sword after them. Thus shall my anger spend itself, and I will vent my fury upon them, and satisfy myself, and they shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken in my jealousy when I spend my fury upon them. Moreover, I will make you a desolation and an

object of reproach among the nations round about you you and in the sight of all that pass by. You shall be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror to the nations round about you when I execute judgments on you in anger and fury and with furious chastisements. I, the Lord, have spoken. When I loose against you my deadly arrows of famine, arrows for destruction, which I will loose to destroy you. And when I bring more and more famine upon you and break your staff of bread, I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will rob you of your children. Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I, the Lord, have spoken. A reading from the book of Proverbs, chapter 12, verses 5 through 8.

The thoughts of the righteous are just. The counsels of the wicked are treacherous. The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, but the mouth of the upright delivers men. The wicked are overthrown and are no more, but the house of the righteous will stand. A man is commended according to his good sense, but one of perverse mind is despised. Father in heaven, we give you praise. Thank you so much. Thank you for claiming us. Thank you for being with us, even in the midst of our battles, in the midst of our trials, in the midst of our sufferings. You are with us every day, God, and we thank you. Please help us when we've turned away from you to allow you to bring

us back. Help us to repent of our sins. Help us to trust in your love and in your grace, especially, Lord, when we are confused, especially when we don't know where to turn, when we don't know what to do. Help us to turn to you this day and every day. 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, remember Isaiah and Ezekiel, different times. And this is so important for us because not only, oh my gosh, this is so incredible. At the end of, sorry, I just have to say this. I have to jump right into this. We're going to hear about it again tomorrow. But in chapter 44, to this. We're going to hear about it again tomorrow. But in chapter 44, we note that Isaiah mentions this person named Cyrus. And this is incredible because Cyrus is going to be the king

of Persia, but he's not going to be the king of Persia for a really, really, really long time. And yet in the end of chapter 45, this is God who says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd and he shall fulfill all my purpose. And now next chapter, we're going to hear about Cyrus again, but this is incredible because this is, remember a book about prophet Isaiah is pre exile. This is before all the terrible things happen. And it's really important for us to recognize this because what does God continue to do in this book of consolation in Isaiah? The beginning of chapter 43 for crying out loud, here is God who says, fear not, I redeemed you. I've called you by name. You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.

Through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. Walk through fire, you shall not be burnt. Little shout out to the book of Daniel coming up. But here is God who says, I will be with you. Now, this is important. This is pre-exile. This is before the Babylonians come and lay siege against Jerusalem and do what everything Ezekiel lived through. But it's God claiming his people saying basically, yes, all of these things

are what you're going to have to go through. You're going to go through horrible things. And we'll talk about that in Ezekiel in just a second. You're going to go through horrible things because you've turned away from me. But fear not, for I've redeemed you. I've called you by name. You're mine. I love this double claim. I've called you by name. You are mine. That's a double, it's like a double claim of the Lord upon his people. And that is, it's necessary. It's important. It's incredible. But it's also coming before the siege. It's coming before the exile. And what it is, is a word of God saying, you need to hear these words because when the exile happens, you need to know that you're mine.

That when the siege happens, you need to know that you're mine. That even when the worst thing you could possibly imagine happens, you need to know that you're mine. God's promising this before the worst day of their lives. He's promising this before the worst day of their lives. He's promising this before the worst season of their lives, that he will be with them throughout all of this. That's so important for us to hear because maybe you've yet to experience the worst day of your life.

Maybe you and I have yet to experience the worst season of our life. And yet God knows our lives. He knows our story. He's outside of time. And he can say, even now, no matter what happens in the future, I have called you by name and you're mine. Because we have this experience, right? Where Ezekiel in chapter four and five, which is remarkable. This is one of the reasons why Ezekiel is the, I heard someone say he's the

performance art prophet, where he basically is acting out, God tells him, act out, basically kind of play with your army men. So basically, I think I said basically five times right there, take a brick and lay it before you. This is going to be the city of Jerusalem and make a little city of Jerusalem and then have a little army and little army men and have them come against the city of Jerusalem and lie on your side for 390 days facing one direction and then flip over and face another direction for another 40 days. All direction and then flip over and face another direction for another 40 days. All the while, by the way, you're eating once a day

and you're gonna cook your food over poop. And this is just, it's like, what is happening? And everyone's, remember that Ezekiel was told by the Lord God, like, I'm giving you this vision and in the midst of this vision, this is so you have no fear against the people and do not let their looks at you dismay you because here's what you're doing.

And I love the fact that God at first says, you're gonna cook your food over human poop. And then Ezekiel says, please, I don't wanna eat anything unclean. And God says, okay, fine, over cow poop, that's fine. Over manure, you can do that. And then he has the other image. That's the one image of the army men and the siege works against Jerusalem reenacting this, but then also the sharp

sword. So Ezekiel is told to cut off his hair and cut off his beard with a sword, which is not what people would use to cut hair typically. But it's the sign of destruction, right? The sword is not a sign of peace. The sword is a sign of destruction. And so he did that because, and they divided into thirds, and those thirds represented the first third was burned up. So it was either the fire or pestilence or famine. That's the first third. The second third was by the sword, right? And then the third third was scattered to the winds. And this is one of the signs of what happened to the people in Jerusalem, right? That pestilence, that third of them destroyed by famine, pestilence by fire, a third destroyed by the sword, and a third scattered to the winds and in exile and lost to history. And one of the things that Ezekiel is doing here is he's enacting in visual form

what had happened and what would happen to the people of God because they had turned against the Lord. It's one of the reasons why Ezekiel is kind of the weird prophet, but we know that he's simply doing this only because God has commanded him to do it. And so as we continue to follow Ezekiel, what we're going to see is him explaining some of the reasons why he's doing this, as well as the fact that in all of these things, just like Isaiah had said, in all of these things, the Lord God is with his people, even in the midst of him allowing them to experience this great tragedy, this incredible suffering, that God is with his people throughout the entire thing, that God is using this not to destroy his

people. He's using this to bring his people back to his heart. That is the message of the prophets always, is come back to the Lord with all your heart. That's one of the key messages that the prophets always return to. Yes, there is suffering. Yes, there is woe. Yes, there are days ahead even where it will seem like the Lord God has abandoned you, but he has not. And in this day, you might need to hear that word that it might seem today like the Lord God has abandoned you. Maybe today is the worst day of your life, but God still says today and every day, I've called you by name and you are mine. So knowing

that maybe someone in this community is going through the worst day of their life right now, you guys, let's pray for each other. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike, and I can't wait to see you tomorrow. God bless. you