The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 214: The Hidden Glory of God (2022)

Episode Date: August 2, 2022

Fr. Mike reflects on how Isaiah's prophecies in chapters 49-50 point to the immediate reality of God's promise of redemption for Israel, as well as to the distant reality of Jesus Christ as the Messiah. In our reading of Ezekiel, we also learn how the glory of God departed from the temple, and how God's presence is often hidden from us as well. Today's readings are Isaiah 49-50, Ezekiel 10-11, and Proverbs 12:17-20. 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 214, and I have to say, I know I say this all the time, but like, honestly, it is an incredible gift to be able to be part of this community of people who are journeying. Whether day 214 for you is the 214th day of this particular year, or whether it's your

day 214, that doesn't matter. The fact is that we still, you know, time and space, when it comes to God, time and space kind of get transcended. And again, if you're here, still here, day 214, I just want to, I want to praise God on your behalf and I want to thank you so much. Anyways, I got overwhelmed when I was preparing for today and just thinking about you listening and praying together. So it's day 214, we're reading Isaiah 49 and 50. Also, maybe I'm partly just excited because of the readings today. And Ezekiel 10 and 11, Proverbs 12, verses 17 through 20. As always,

the Bible translation 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 and you receive daily episodes, daily updates. But you know all of that because as I said, it is day 214. Again, I am so stoked, jacked, psyched, whatever the word is, pumped to be able to enter into Isaiah 49 and 50 with you.

This is, we've already had the servant song and one of the servant songs. There's a number of them here in the book of the prophet Isaiah, but we get another one today. And I just, what a gift. As well as Ezekiel chapter 10 and 11. Remember Ezekiel beginning with chapter eight was seeing the glory of God in the temple. He'd been transported to Jerusalem in spirit, and he's going to see the glory of God leave the temple. And tragic, tragic. Isaiah 49 and 50, Ezekiel 10 and 11, Proverbs chapter 12, verses 17 through 20. The book of the prophet Isaiah, chapter 49, the servant's mission. Listen to me, O islands, and pay attention, you peoples, from afar. The Lord called me from the womb.

From the body of my mother he named my name. He made my mouth like a sharp sword. In the shadow of his hand he hid me. He made me a polished arrow. In his quiver he hid me away. And he said to me, You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified. But I said, I have labored in vain. I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity, yet surely my right is with the Lord and my recompense with my God.

And now the Lord says, who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him. For I am honored in the eyes of the Lord, and my God has become my strength. He says, It is too light a thing that you should be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel. I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations, the servant of rulers. Kings shall see and arise, princes, and they shall prostrate themselves because of the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.

Thus says the Lord, in a time of favor I have answered you. In a day of salvation I have helped you. I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people to establish the land, to apportion the desolate heritages, saying to the prisoners, come forth. To those who are in darkness, appear. They shall feed along the ways. On all bare heights shall be their pasture. They shall not hunger or thirst. Neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them. For he who has pity on them will lead them and by springs of water will guide them. And I will make all my mountains away

and my highways shall be raised up. Behold, these shall come from afar and behold these from the north and from the west and these from the land of Syene. Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth. Break forth, O mountains, into singing. For the Lord has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his afflicted. But Zion said, The Lord has forsaken me. My Lord has forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child? That she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?

Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have graven you on the palms of my hands. Your walls are continually before me. Your builders outstrip your destroyers, and those who laid you waste go forth from you. Lift up your eyes round about and see, they all gather, they come to you. As I live, says the Lord, you shall put them all on as an ornament. You shall bind them on as a bride does. Surely your waste and your desolate places and your devastated land, surely now you will be too narrow for your inhabitants and those who swallowed you up will be far away. The children born in the time of your bereavement will yet say in your inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up will be far away. The children born in the time of your bereavement will yet say in your ears, This place is too narrow for me, make room for me to dwell in. Then you will say in your heart, Who has borne me these? I was bereaved and barren,

exiled and put away, but who has brought up these? Behold, I was left alone. From where then have these come? Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations and raise my signal to the peoples, and they shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders. Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. With their faces to the ground, they shall bow down to you and lick the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord. Those who wait for me shall not be put to shame. Can the prey be taken from the mighty or the captives of a tyrant be rescued? Surely, thus says the Lord, even the captives of the mighty shall be taken and the prey of the tyrant

be rescued. For I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children. I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine. Then all flesh shall know that I am the Lord, your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. Chapter 50. The Sufferings of the Servant. Thus says the Lord, Where is your mother's bill of divorce, with which I put her away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities you were sold,

and for your transgressions your mother was put away. Why, when I came, was there no man? When I called, was there no one to answer? Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem, or have I no power to deliver? Behold, by my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a desert, their fish stink for lack of water and die of thirst. I clothe the heavens with blackness and make sackcloth their covering. The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him that is weary. Morning by morning he wakens. He wakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. The Lord God

has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious. I turned not backward. I gave my back to those who struck me and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard. I hid not my face from shame and spitting. For the Lord God helps me. Therefore, I have not been confounded. Therefore, I have set my face like a flint and I know that I shall not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord God helps me.

Who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment. The moth will eat them up. Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant, who walks in darkness and has no light, yet trusts in the name of the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant, who walks in darkness and has no light, yet trusts in the name of the Lord and relies upon his God? Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who set brands alight,

walk by the light of your fire and by the brands which you have kindled. This shall you have from my hand. You shall lie down in torment. The book of the prophet Ezekiel, chapter 10. Divine glory over the cherubim. Then I looked, and behold, on the firmament that was over the heads of the cherubim, there appeared above them something like a sapphire in form resembling a throne. And he said to the man clothed in linen,

Go in among the whirling wheels underneath the cherubim, fill your hands with burning coals from between the cherubim and scatter them over the city. And he went in before my eyes. Now the cherubim were standing on the south side of the house when the man went in and a cloud filled the inner court and the glory of the Lord went up from the cherubim to the threshold of the house, and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the glory of the Lord. And the sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard as far as the outer court, like the voice of God Almighty when he speaks.

And when he commanded the man clothed in linen, take fire from between the whirling wheels, from between the cherubim, he went in and stood beside a wheel. And a cherub stretched forth his hand from between the cherubim to the fire that was between the cherubim, he went in and stood beside a wheel. And a cherub stretched forth his hand from between the cherubim to the fire that was between the cherubim and took some of it and put it into the hands of the man clothed in linen who took it and went out. The cherubim appeared to have the form of a human hand under their wings. And I looked, and behold, there were four wheels beside the cherubim, one beside each cherub,

and the appearance of the wheels was like sparkling chrysolite. And as for their appearance, the four had the same likeness, as if a wheel were within a wheel. When they went, they went in any of their four directions without turning as they went, but in whatever direction the front wheel faced the others followed without turning as they went. And the rims and their spokes and the wheels were full of eyes round about, the wheels that the four of them had. As for the wheels, they were called in my hearing the whirling wheels. And everyone had four faces. The first face was the face of the cherub, and the second face was the face of a man, and the third face the face of a lion, and the third face, the face of a lion, and the fourth, the face of an eagle.

And the cherubim mounted up. These were the living creatures that I saw by the river Kabar. And when the cherubim went, the wheels went beside them. And when the cherubim lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth, the wheels did not turn from beside them. When they stood still, these stood still. And when they mounted up, these mounted up with them. For the spirit of the living creatures was in them. Then the glory of the Lord went forth from the threshold of the house and stood over

the cherubim. And the cherubim lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight as they went forth with the wheels beside them. And they stood at the door of the east gate of the house of the Lord. And the glory of the God of Israel was over them. These were the living creatures that I saw underneath the God of Israel by the river Kabar, and I knew that they were cherubim. Each had four faces, and each four wings, and underneath their wings the semblance of human hands. And as for the likeness of their faces, they were the very faces

whose appearance I had seen by the river Kabar. They went every one straight forward. Chapter 11. Judgment against the wicked counselors. The spirit lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the house of the Lord which faces east. And behold, at the door of the gateway there were twenty-five men, and I saw among them Jaazaniah the son of Azur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people. And he said to me, Son of man, these are the men who devise iniquity and who give wicked

counsel in this city, who say, The time is not near to build houses. This city is the cauldron, and we are the flesh. Therefore prophesy against them. Prophesy, O son of man. And the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me, and he said to me, say, thus says the Lord. So you think a house of Israel, for I know the things that come into your mind. You have multiplied your slain in this city

and have filled its streets with the slain. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, your slain, whom you have laid in the midst of it, they are the flesh, and this city is the cauldron. But you shall be you have laid in the midst of it, they are the flesh, and this city is the cauldron. But you shall be brought forth out of the midst of it. You have feared the sword, and I will bring the sword upon you, says the Lord God. And I will bring you forth out of the midst of it, and give you into the hands of foreigners, and execute judgments upon you. You shall fall by the sword. I will judge you at the border of Israel, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

This city shall not be your cauldron, nor shall you be the flesh in the midst of it. I will judge you at the border of Israel, and you shall know that I am the Lord, for you have not walked in my statutes, nor executed my ordinances, but have acted according to the ordinances of the nations that are round about you. And it came to pass, while I was prophesying, that Pelatiah, the son of Benaiah, died. Then I fell down upon my face and cried with a loud voice and said, Ah, Lord God, will you make a full end of the remnant of Israel? God will restore Israel.

And the word of the Lord came to me, Son of man, your brethren, even your brethren, your fellow exiles, the whole house of Israel, all of them, are those of whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, they have gone far from the Lord. To us this land is given for a possession. Therefore say, thus says the Lord God, though I removed them far off among the nations,

and though I scattered them among the countries, yet I removed them far off among the nations, and though I scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary to them for a while in the countries where they have gone. Therefore say, thus says the Lord God, I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of their countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. And when they come here, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations. And I will give them one heart and put a new spirit within them.

I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh that they may walk in my statutes and keep my ordinances and obey them. And they shall be my people and I will be their God. But as for those whose heart goes after their detestable things and their abominations, I will repay their deeds upon their own heads, says the Lord God. Then the cherubim lifted up their wings, and the wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them. And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city. And the Spirit lifted me up and brought

me in the vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea to the exiles. Then the vision that I had seen went up from me, and I told the exiles all the things that the Lord had showed me. The book of Proverbs chapter 12 verses 17 through 20. He who speaks the truth gives honest evidence, but a false witness utters deceit. There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment. Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil, but those who plan good have joy. Father in heaven, we give you praise and thank you. Thank you so much. Gosh, Lord, thank you so much for prophesying not only the redemption of Israel,

but the coming of Jesus Christ, your servant, your son, our savior. We thank you so much, Lord God. And we cannot even begin to praise your name for the faithfulness of the Jewish people, your covenant people. Praise your name for the faithfulness of those first Christians who were called by your son, called by name. We thank you for the Christians throughout history who have been faithful and have endured storms and have endured trials and have passed on the faith down to us at this moment

where we can read and we can listen to your word. We thank you so much for all those who have gone before us. Thank you for our Jewish brothers and sisters. Thank you for our Christian brothers and sisters who have gone before us. We ask that you bring all people, all people, especially those who do not know you, those who do not know your son, Jesus, into a full covenant with you, God, because you are the one who had been promised, and you're the one who has fulfilled that promise. Help us, please help us all to hear your voice and to be drawn closer and closer to your heart. We make this prayer in Jesus' name, amen, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Oh my gosh, this is incredible. Ah, what a gift that we have. Okay,

so Isaiah chapter 49 and 50 are just, ah, okay, let's get, okay, context. The context, of course, originally, remember all the prophets, whenever they prophesy, they're talking about here, they're talking about now, typically, right? So they're not just foretelling, they're forth telling, right? So they're speaking about now. And one of the things, or at least about the current reality. So one of the things that Isaiah is talking about here in 49 to 50 is the servant's mission. Who's he talking about? Well, he's talking about Israel, like the people of Israel, how they will be brought back. And so, yes, there is an immediate reality that Isaiah is speaking about the people of Israel. There's also a distant reality that Isaiah is speaking, even though he doesn't know it. He's speaking about the future Messiah. He's

speaking about Jesus himself. And we're going to see those connections in just a second. But I think it's worth completely, again, highlighting the fact that this is from the book of consolation in Isaiah, right? The book of Woe, the first one through 39, and chapters 40 through 66 is consolation. And how much more is there consolation than in chapter 49, where Isaiah says, here's Israel. The Lord called me from the womb, the body of my mother. He named my name. He made my mouth like a sharp sword, right? It goes on to say, you're my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified. And that sense of, hmm, there is so much to be said here that I know that I will not do it justice. And so I just want to highlight, you heard it, you heard the words of God, that there's this word of comfort in this word of,

you will not be forgotten. Even later on in chapter 49 in verse 14, Zion said, again, Israel said, the Lord has forsaken me. My God, my Lord has forgotten me. And I, in God responds, can a woman forget her sucking child should that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb. And then he goes on to say, even if she might forget, even if that happens, that yes, I guess there is the case that a parent could forget their child, but even though she may forget, yet I will not forget you. And there's this word in 49 verse 16 that just always strikes me. Behold, I have graven you on the palms of my hands and that inscribed you. I've written your name. And that's this word of God that comes to us so strongly.

God's saying, I have engraved you, I've inscribed you, I've carved you, your name in the palms of my hands. We see in that not only the reality of God's undying and unstoppable love for you, that he'll never forget you. But also we see that happen really actually, truly in Jesus' crucifixion. In Christ's crucifixion here on the palms of his hands, you know, when after Christ's resurrection, he shows the disciples his hands and his feet, and he kept those wounds. He didn't keep all the wounds of the scourging or all the wounds of the being beaten, but he kept the wounds and his feet in his hands and in his side. And we have that, it just kind of harkens back to, wow, here's God who he allowed himself to be wounded for

our transgressions. And he kept those wounds in his hands. He's engraved your name on the palm of his hand, which is incredible. Later on in chapter 50, here's the sufferings of the servant. And again, this is immediately Israel, but ultimately Jesus. And this is so incredible where this is Jesus who says, the Lord has opened my ear. I was not rebellious. I had not turned backward. Here is Jesus who was completely faithful to his father. I gave my back to those who struck me and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard. I hid not my face from shame and spitting. And that is, that is Jesus.

In fact, it goes on to say, I set my face like flint. And that is how Jesus Christ set his face when he head to Jerusalem, when it was time to go up to Jerusalem and face his passion, death, and ultimately resurrection. He set his face like flint to go to Jerusalem. And gosh, just we can reread, read and reread chapters 49 through 54, because we got more chapters like this coming up so soon. One last thing about Ezekiel. I mentioned that Ezekiel 8 through 11 talks about how he was transported in spirit by the river Kabar all the way down to Jerusalem, where he saw the abominations happening in the temple, where he bore that on his back, right? He bore the weight of the people, the sins of the people, because he's a priest.

But also he saw the glory of God in the temple. And now what we heard declared in chapter 11 is that he also saw the glory of God depart from the temple. And as it says in verse 23 of chapter 11, and the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city and stood upon the mountain, which is on the east side of the city. And he was brought back to Chaldea, right? He's brought back to Babylon and he related all that he saw. And this is so tragic, so tragic that because the people had abandoned the Lord and they had done so many abominations

in the temple of the Lord, that for a time, the spirit of the Lord departed. Now, remember, the first vision that Ezekiel had on the river Kabar was of the same glory of God. And so we know that God did not abandon his people at all. In fact, his glory followed them, but hidden, completely hidden while they were in exile. And that's how so often it is with us, Even though we might be faithful or unfaithful, we don't always see the glory of God.

His glory, his presence is so often hidden in our lives. And so we pray not only to be faithful to the Lord, but also that when we can't see his glory, when we can't see his presence, that we remain faithful, that we remain faithful, that we remain his all the days and all the nights and all the entirety of our lives. So we pray for each other. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike.

I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.