The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 213: The Redeemer (2023)

Episode Date: August 1, 2023

Fr. Mike touches upon the prophecy of judgment against Babylon and Israel, and how God still promises to be Israel's redeemer despite their disobedience. We also read about Ezekiel's vision of the temple and how the markings on the foreheads of the Israelites symbolizes the mourning of true worship, and also foreshadows Jesus' death on the Cross. Today we read Isaiah 47-48, Ezekiel 8-9, and Proverbs 12:13-16. 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 213. We are reading roughly, I mean, four plus chapters today. We're reading Isaiah chapter 47 and 48, as well as Ezekiel chapter 8 and 9. We're also dabbling

into Proverbs chapter 12, verses 13 through 16. 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. I'd like to know how many people have done that. That's very interesting. Well, to me it is. How many people have, or how many people have ever typed in ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year? I don't know. Just a piece of curiosity for me. Anyways, you can subscribe to this podcast if you'd like by clicking on subscribe. You can receive daily episodes unless you're listening to us in the Halo app, in which case you can put music on in the background. Someone told me the other day that they can put on Gregorian chant as we're reading scripture.

That's awesome. That's pretty cool. Or, you know, rainfall or maybe birds chirping or something like this, or maybe even fire crackling. I don't even know, but it is still regardless of what you can do with this podcast. It's day 213, Isaiah 47 and 48, Ezekiel chapter 8 and 9, Proverbs chapter 12, verses 13 through 16. The book of the prophet Isaiah, chapter 47, the humiliation of Babylon. Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans. For you shall no more be called tender and delicate. Take the

millstones and grind meal, put off your veil, strip off your robe, uncover your legs, pass through the rivers. Your nakedness shall be uncovered and your shame shall be seen. I will take vengeance and I will spare no man. Our Redeemer, the Lord of hosts is his name, is the Holy One of Israel. Sit in silence and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans, for you shall no more be called the mistress of kingdoms. I was angry with my people. I profaned my heritage.

I gave them into your hand. You showed them no mercy. On the aged, you made your yoke exceedingly heavy. You said, I shall be mistress forever, so that you did not lay these things to heart or remember their end. Now, therefore, hear this, you lover of pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, I am, and there is no one besides me. I shall not sit as a widow or know the loss of children.

These two things shall come to you in a moment, in one day, the loss of children and widowhood shall come upon you in full measure, in spite of, the loss of children and widowhood shall come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and the great power of your enchantments. You felt secure in your wickedness. You said, no one sees me. Your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray, and you said in your heart, I am, and there is no one besides me. But evil shall come upon you, for which you cannot atone. Disaster shall fall upon you which you will not be able to expiate and ruin shall come on you suddenly of which you know nothing. Stand fast in your enchantments and your many sorceries

with which you have labored from your youth. Perhaps you may be able to succeed. Perhaps you may inspire terror. You are wearied with your many counsels. Let them stand forth and save you. Those who divide the heavens, who gaze at the stars, who at the new moons predict what shall befall you. Behold, they are like stubble. The fire consumes them. They cannot deliver themselves from the power

of the flame. No coal for warming oneself is this, no fire to sit before. Such to you are those with whom you have labored, who have trafficked with you from their youth. They wander about each in his own direction. There is no one to save you. Chapter 48, Israel's Unfaithfulness to God, the Creator and Redeemer. Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and who came forth from the loins of Judah, who swear by the name of the Lord and confess the God of Israel, but not in truth or right. For they call themselves after the holy city and stay themselves on the God of Israel. The Lord of hosts is his name. The former things I declared of old that went forth from my mouth and I made them known. Then suddenly I did them and they came to pass because I know that you are obstinate and your neck is an iron sinew, and your forehead brass.

I declared them to you from of old. Before they came to pass, I announced them to you, lest you should say, My idol did them, my graven image and my molten image commanded them. You have heard. Now see all this. And will you not declare it? From this time forth I make you hear new things, hidden things, which you have not known. They are created now, not long ago, before today you have never heard of them, lest you

should say, Behold, I knew them. You have never heard, you have never known. From of old your ear has not been opened, for I knew that you would deal very treacherously, and that from birth you were called a rebel. For my name's sake I defer my anger, and for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not like silver, I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake I do it. For how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another. Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I called. I am he, I am the first, and I am the

last. My hand laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens. When I call to them, they stand forth together. Assemble all of you and hear who among them has declared these things. The Lord loves him. He shall perform his purpose on Babylon and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans. I, even I have spoken and called him. I have brought him and he will prosper in his way. Draw near to me. Hear this.

From the beginning, I have not spoken in secret. From the time it came to be, I have been there. And now the Lord God has sent me and his spirit. Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. I am the Lord, your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go. Oh, that you had listened to my commandments. Then your peace would have been like a river

and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. Your offspring would have been like the sand and your descendants like its grains. Their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me. Go forth from Babylon, free from Chaldea. Declare this with a shout of joy. Proclaim it. Send it forth to the end of the earth. Say, the Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob. They thirsted not when he led them through the deserts. He made water flow for them from the rock. He cleft the rock and the water gushed out. There is no peace, says the Lord, for the wicked. The book of the prophet Ezekiel, chapter 8. Vision of the abominations in the temple.

In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house with the elders of Judah sitting before me, the hand of the Lord God fell there upon me. Then I beheld a form that had the appearance of a man. Behold, what appeared to be his loins, it was fire, and above his loins, it was like the appearance of brightness, like gleaming bronze. He put forth the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my head,

and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven, and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the gateway of the inner court that faces north, where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy. And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the plain. Then he said to me, Son of man, lift up your eyes now in the direction of the north. So I lifted up my eyes toward the north, and behold, north of the altar gate in the entrance was this image of jealousy. And he said to me, son of man,

do you see what they are doing? The great abominations that the house of Israel are committing here to drive me far from my sanctuary, but you will see still greater abominations. And he brought me to the door of the court. And when I looked, behold, there was a hole in the wall. Then said he to me, son of man, dig in the wall. And when I dug in the wall, behold, there was a door. And he said to me, go in and see the vile abominations that they are committing here. So I went in and saw, and there portrayed upon the wall round about were all kinds of creeping things and loathsome beasts and all the idols of the house of Israel. And before them stood 70 men of the elders of the house of Israel,

with Jeazaniah, the son of Shaphan, standing among them. Each had his censer in his hand, and the smoke of the cloud of incense went up. Then he said to me, Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, every man in his room of pictures? For they say, The Lord does not see us. The Lord has forsaken the land. He said also to me, you will see still greater abominations which they commit. Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the Lord. And behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. Then he said to me, have you seen this, O son of man? You will see still greater abominations than these. And he brought me into

the inner court of the house of the Lord, and behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, worshipping the sun toward the east. Then he said to me, Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it too slight a thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they commit here, that they should fill the land with violence and provoke me further to anger? Behold, they put the branch to their nose. Therefore I will deal in wrath. My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity, and though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them. Chapter 9. Vision of

the Executioners. Then he cried in my ears with a loud voice, saying, Draw near, you executioners of the city, each with his destroying weapon in his hand. And behold, six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, every man with his weapon for slaughter in his hand. And with them was a man clothed in linen with a writing case at his side. And they went in and stood beside the bronze altar. Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherubim on which it rested to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed in linen who had the writing case at his side. And the Lord said to him, Go through the city,

through Jerusalem, and put a mark upon the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it. And to the others he said in my hearing, Pass through the city after him and kill. Your eye shall not spare, you shall show no pity, slay old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no one upon whom is the mark and begin at my sanctuary. So they began with the elders who were before the house. Then he said to them, defile the house and fill the courts with the slain go forth. So they went forth and killed in the city. And while they were killing and I was left alone, I fell upon my face and cried, ah, Lord God, will you destroy all that remains of Israel in the outpouring of your wrath upon Jerusalem? Then he said to me, The guilt of the

house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great. The land is full of blood and the city full of injustice, for they say the Lord has forsaken the land and the Lord does not see. As for me, my eye will not spare, nor will I have pity, but I will repay their deeds upon their heads. And behold, the man clothed in linen, with a writing case at his side, brought back word, saying, I have done as you commanded me. The book of Proverbs chapter 12 verses 13 through 16. An evil man is ensnared by the transgression of his lips, but the righteous escapes from trouble. From the fruit of his words, a man is satisfied with good, and the work of a man's hand comes

back to him. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice. The vexation of a fool is known at once, but the prudent man ignores an insult. Father in heaven, we give you praise and we give you glory and we thank you so much

for your word. We thank you for the gift of life and we thank you for the fact that things are alive, Lord God. Honestly, life is your gift that we grow and we change is your gift, both when we grow in strength and also when we grow in age and in weakness. Lord God, even in our infirmities, you can make yourself known.

Even in our weakness, you can make your power known, and you do. You often choose to do that, and so we give you permission to make yourself known to us and to the world in our weakness. We give you permission to make yourself known to us and to others around us in our brokenness and our woundedness. We'll make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Well, great, you guys. Okay. So Isaiah chapter 47 and 48, those are the two chapters today. And in them both, you might've caught this. If you're reading along in your Bible or in the Red Adventure Bible, any Bible, it will

talk about in chapter 47, it was all about the humiliation of Babylon, right? So it's, here's Isaiah who's talking about, yes, the coming of Babylon, they're bringing us into exile where they're going to destroy. They're going to be the massive superpower of the world. And yet he goes on to say, he says, and yet your nakedness will be uncovered. Your shame will be seen. And I will take vengeance. I will spare no man. So God is prophesying. He already prophesied through Isaiah that Cyrus would come the king of the Persians. And now here's this prophecy of judgment upon Babylon, which is so powerful,

especially because the Babylonians are making it clear that you felt secure. This is chapter 47, verse 10. You felt secure in your wickedness. You said, no one sees me. Your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray. And you said in your heart, I am, and there's no one besides me. They were proud and they believed they did not need help. They did not need God. And so God is humiliating and humbling them.

In chapter 48, though, that is a word of the Lord to Israel itself. And so again, here's the nations, you know, the Gentile Babylon, and they thought themselves not needing God. But here is Israel, who also was unfaithful to their creator and redeemer. And so because of that, God says, because of that, you're going to experience judgment. But, but this is important. I'm your redeemer. And this is chapter 48, verse 17. I'm your redeemer, the Holy one of Israel. I'm the Lord, your God, who teaches you to profit and lead you in the way you should go. Even laments, oh, that you would listen to my commandments. Then your peace would have been like a river. Your righteousness, like the waves of the sea,

your offspring would have been like sand and your descendants like its grains. And so basically here is God saying, I'm bringing my judgment upon you because you've been unfaithful. And yet also, if you turn back to me, I once, once again, we'll restore you. So there's this really incredible, again, chapter 47 about judgment against Babylon, chapter 48 about judgment against Israel, but also that promise to Israel of I'm still your redeemer. I'm going to be your savior. And I do and will save you. Okay, so here is Ezekiel in chapter eight. And he's by the river.

You know, he's far, far away from Jerusalem. But the Lord God takes him in a vision to see Jerusalem. And in this vision, he sees the temple. And he sees not only the temple, he not only sees the abominations happening in the temple, this false worship of God going on in there, or false worship of false gods going on in there. But he also sees the glory of God present in the temple. And this is so massively important because remember that Ezekiel is the one who had that incredible vision of the Lord God with that, you know, bronze image of himself and on fire, basically encapsulated in this incredible power. He sees that presence of God in the temple of God. This is a vision that goes from chapter eight to chapter 11. By the end of chapter 10 and 11, the glory of God in the temple

will have departed from the temple. This is tragic, tragic. But at the beginning of chapter eight and here in chapter nine, Ezekiel sees now here's the glory of God is still there. Number two is we also see that God keeps calling Ezekiel son of man. Now, what does that mean? Because we hear this term son of man a bunch in the Bible. In fact, Jesus refers to himself as the son of man. So in this case, in Ezekiel, all it means is that he is a human being. So it just simply means you're a son of Adam. You know, you're a son of human beings. And so you are a human being. In Daniel chapter seven, that term will take on an entirely new meaning because the son of man is the one to whom God hands all authority and power and dominion and kingdom.

And so when Jesus claims to be the son of man, he's not merely claiming to be human. He's taking claim on that promise in Daniel chapter 7 because the name, that term will have changed by Daniel chapter 7. So when Jesus claims it, he's not just claiming, I'm human, you guys. He's also claiming, I'm human, but I've received the power, the dominion and the glory from the eternal God. Last little note. Oh, this is incredible.

In chapter nine of Ezekiel, here's God who has this prophetic word to these number of men, these six men to go out with the sword and put to death all those who do not have this mark on their foreheads. Now there's a, there's a writer, right? A man dressed in linen, that linen is a sign of priesthood. So this is a key thing. The linen is a sign of priesthood and he's told to go put a mark on the foreheads of all those who mourn the abominations happening in the temple.

Now the mark is the Hebrew word tau. And the Hebrew word tau means T. Basically, it's a lowercase T, which is a cross. This is just one of those foreshadowing moments that is absolutely incredible, where you realize those people who were mourning the abominations in the temple, they were mourning the loss of true worship in the temple, were marked with a cross on their foreheads. And this spared their lives. It's one of the reasons why at every baptism, there's a sign of the cross that the priest,

the deacon, the bishop, and the parents and godparents make on the forehead of the child or any person who's getting baptized. In addition, it's one of the things we do at Lent on Ash Wednesday. We get marked with the sign of the cross on our forehead. That's a reminder not only of this in Ezekiel chapter 9, but also as a reminder, Ezekiel chapter 9 is a foreshadowing of the Lord's goodness and that he will lay down his life by humbly submitting to death, even death on a cross. And it's just one of those incredible moments of just, wow, God, you planned this. He planned this way far in advance. And it is incredible. It is incredible. God is good, and what he has done is wonderful in our eyes.

So, ah, what a gift, you guys, to be able to be with you today and to be able to pray with you, to be able to hear the word of God. Hopefully, you did not hear the lawnmower and the weed whacker going on in the background. I'm not sure if you did today, but if it didn't, we got to be able to get through God's word. Not get through God's word. We got to let God's word get through to us because we need it. We need his word to permeate our lives, to transform the way we see, transform the way we love, and transform the way we walk in this world. So I'm praying for you that that happens for you. Please pray that that happens more and more in me. And man, my name is Father

Mike, and I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.