The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 219: Separation from God (2023)

Episode Date: August 7, 2023

Fr. Mike points out that separation from God is not due to a lack of power or love on God's part, but is a consequence of our willful refusal to follow Him. He also highlights that despite our unfaithfulness, God always has a plan for reconciliation. The readings are Isaiah 59-60, Ezekiel 19, and Proverbs 13:9-12. 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 219. We are reading from Isaiah chapter 59 and 60, Ezekiel chapter 19, and Proverbs chapter 13, verses 9 through 12.

We only have, including today, we only have five days left with Isaiah. We're coming to the end of the book of the prophet Isaiah. It's been such an incredible opportunity to be able to journey through the book of woes and the book of consolation. So good. But the Bible translation I'm reading from is the revised, segue here, 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 will receive daily episodes and not have to track down those pesky episodes that aren't in your queue because you neglected to subscribe. As I said, today is day 219 and we're reading Isaiah 59 and 60, Ezekiel 19 without the two in front of it, and Proverbs chapter 13 verses 9 through 12. The book of the prophet Isaiah chapter 59, injustice and oppression to be punished.

Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, or his ear dull that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies, your tongue mutters wickedness. No one enters suit justly. No one goes to law honestly. They rely on empty pleas. They speak lies.

They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity. They hatch adder's eggs. They weave the spider's web. He who eats their eggs dies. And from one which is crushed, a viper is hatched. Their webs will not serve as clothing. Men will not cover themselves with what they make. Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their

hands. Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Desolation and destruction are in their highways. The way of peace they know not, and there is no justice in their paths. They have made their roads crooked. No one who goes in them knows peace. Therefore, justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us. We look for light, and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. We grope for the wall like the blind. We grope like those who have no eyes. We stumble at noon as in the twilight. Among those in full vigor, we are like dead men.

We all growl like bears. We moan and moan like doves. We look for justice, but there is none. For salvation, but it is far from us. For our transgressions are multiplied before you and our sins testify against us. For our transgressions are with us and we know our iniquities, transgressing and denying the Lord and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt,

conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words. Justice is turned back and righteousness stands afar off. For truth has fallen in the public squares and uprightness cannot enter. Truth is lacking and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The Lord saw it and it displeased him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no one to intervene. Then his own arm brought him victory and his righteousness upheld him. He put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation upon his head. He put on garments of

vengeance for clothing and wrapped himself in fury as a mantle. According to their deeds, so will he repay. Wrath to his adversaries, repayment to his enemies. To the islands, he will render repayment. So they shall fear the name of the Lord from the west and his glory from the rising of the sun. For he will come like a rushing stream, which the wind of the Lord drives. And he will come to Zion as redeemer,

to those in Jacob who turn from transgression, says the Lord. And as for me, this is my from transgression, says the Lord. And as for me, this is my covenant with them, says the Lord. My spirit which is upon you and my words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart out of your mouth or out of the mouth of your children or out of the mouth of your children's children, says the Lord, from this time forth and forevermore. forth and forevermore. Chapter 60. The Lord will come as a light and will gather his people. Arise, shine, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.

For behold, darkness shall cover the earth and thick darkness the peoples. But the Lord will arise upon you and his glory will be seen upon you, and nations shall walk by your light, and kings in the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes round about and see. They all gather together. They come to you. Your sons shall come from far, and your daughters shall be carried in the arms. Then you shall see and be radiant. Your heart shall thrill and rejoice, because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you. The wealth of the nations shall come to you. A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah. All those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.

All the flocks of Kadar shall be gathered to you. The rams of Nebaoth shall minister to you. They shall come up with acceptance on my altar and I will glorify my glorious house. Who are these that fly like a cloud and like doves to the windows? For the islands shall wait for me. The ships of Tarshish first to bring your sons from far, their silver and gold with them for the name of the Lord, your God, and for the Holy One of Israel, because he has glorified you. Foreigners shall build up your walls and their kings shall minister to you. For in my wrath I struck you, but in my favor I have had mercy on you. Your gates shall

be open continually. Day and night they shall not be shut, that men may bring to you the wealth of the nations with their kings led in procession. For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish. Those nations shall be utterly laid waste. The glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the cypress, the plain, and the pine, to beautify the place of my sanctuary, and I will make the place of my feet glorious. The sons of those who oppressed you shall come bending low to you, and all who despised you shall bow down at your feet. They shall call you the city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel. Whereas you had been forsaken and hated, with no one passing through,

I will make you majestic forever, a joy from age to age. You shall suck the milk of nations. You shall suck the milk of nations. You shall suck the breast of kings. And you shall know that I, the Lord, am your savior and your redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob. Instead of bronze, I will bring gold. And instead of iron, I will bring silver. Instead of wood, bronze. Instead of stones, iron. I will make your overseers peace and your taskmasters righteousness. Violence shall no more be heard in your land, devastation or destruction within your borders.

You shall call your walls salvation and your gates praise. The sun shall no longer be your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you by night. But the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself. For the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning

shall be ended. Your people shall all be righteous, they shall possess the land forever, the shoot of my planting, the work of my hands, that I might be glorified. The least one shall become a clan, and the smallest one a mighty nation. I am the Lord. In its time I will hasten it. The book of the prophet Ezekiel, chapter 19. A Lamentation for Israel. And you, take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel and say, what a lioness was your mother among lions.

She lurked in the midst of young lions, rearing her whelps, and she brought up one of her whelps. He became a young lion and he learned to catch prey. He devoured men. The nations sounded an alarm against him. He was taken in their pit and they brought him with hooks to the land of Egypt. When she saw that, she was baffled that her hope was lost. She took another of her whelps and made him a young lion. He prowled among the lions. He became a young lion and he learned to catch prey. He devoured men

and he ravaged their strongholds and laid waste their cities. And the land was appalled and all who were in it at the sound of his roaring. Then the nations set against him snares on every side. They spread their net over him. He was taken in their pit with hooks. They put him in a cage and brought him to the king of Babylon. They brought him into custody that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel. Your mother was like a vine in a vineyard, transplanted by the water, fruitful and full of branches by reason of abundant water. Its strongest stem became a ruler's scepter. It towered aloft among the thick boughs. It was seen in its height with the mass of its branches. But the vine was plucked up in fury, cast down to the ground.

The east wind dried it up. Its fruit was stripped off. Its strong stem was withered. The fire consumed it. Now it is transplanted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land. And fire has gone out from its stem, has consumed its branches and fruit, so that there remains in it no strong stem, no scepter for a ruler. This is a lamentation and has become a lamentation.

Proverbs chapter 13 verses 9 through 12. The light of the righteous rejoices, but the lamp of the wicked will be put out. By insolence the heedless make strife, but with those who take advice is wisdom. Wealth hastily gotten will dwindle, but he who gathers little by little will increase it. Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life. makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. We thank you so much for your word, and we thank you for giving us your presence and your wisdom. Help us to receive your wisdom and not just let it pass us by, but to live it, to base our lives upon you and upon the truth that you impart and the wisdom that you share with us. In Jesus' name, we pray. In the name of the Father, and of the Son,

and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Just one quick note on Proverbs chapter 13. It's, gosh, every time we come back to the book of Proverbs, there's these little javelins, right? These little arrows or spears of truth that can really just, if we meditate on them and put them into practice, they will make a huge difference in our lives. For example, just really practically, wealth hastily gotten will dwindle, but he who gathers little by little will increase it. And so it makes me think, of course, of the lottery winners or someone who gets this big windfall of cash and doesn't know what to do with it because I've never had this before. So wealth hastily gotten will dwindle.

I just, I've won big, I scored big versus little by little. Someone who gathers little by little will increase it because you learn how to live with little as opposed to someone who thinks, oh my gosh, I have this abundance and now I, but I've never learned how to live with abundance. I've never had to learn how to manage my resources

because I haven't had any resources before. And yet, when we gather little by little or gain little by little, we learn little by little how to increase it. And the same thing is true with material goods. The same thing is true with wisdom. The same thing in some ways is true with faith. We just continue to walk in faith. We continue to increase it day by day. Then we have the kind of faith that can live regardless of what the day is like, regardless of the season. And that's just something, something just really, I think, I don't know, worth meditating on and not just worth meditating on, but worth basing the actions of our life on. Okay. I had said a couple of days ago, maybe a while ago, that the prophets are going to be rough and maybe it is rough for you. That's completely

understandable. But at the same time, this has been an incredible journey to go through Isaiah. I mentioned at the beginning of this that we only have five days, including today, to go through Isaiah. So only four more sections or four more days when we have Isaiah, because there's only six more chapters. 61 we'll do tomorrow, 62, and then we end up on chapter 66. But the prophets have been, it's been remarkable to be able to follow along with them and to be able to see, okay, here's Isaiah. What's the context here? He's preaching to a people who will be sent into exile.

They will be conquered essentially. And it will seem like God can't do, but he is going to, he's going to redeem them. He's going to bring them back, but they do have to repent. And that's, it's remarkable because at the beginning of chapter 59, Isaiah makes the, makes it very, very clear. He says, behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that I can't save or his ear dull that it cannot hear. And that's one of the claims that we can lay against God is that maybe, maybe just God can't do this. Maybe he's not listening. And he says, no, the Lord's hand is not shortened that he can't save. It's not like the lack is not in him

or his ear dull that he can't hear. He says, but your iniquities have made a separation between you and God and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. And this is remarkable, not only for our own days. I think I said remarkable five times today so far. It's remarkable not only because this is for our day and age, but also he goes on to list the iniquities, right? The sins of the people that are separating them from the Lord, their God. And that list, you know, he says, your hands are defiled with blood. Your lips have spoken lies. No one calls for justice. They knew what was fair and good, but they just simply let it be. They rely on empty words. They conceive evil and bring forth iniquity. The acts of violence is in

their hands. Their feet run to evil. They made themselves crooked paths and whoever takes those paths shall not know peace. And this is just, again, it's one of those moments where we're able to say, yeah, we know the story now, right? We know the story of the people of Israel, God's chosen people who he still loves, he still claims, who turned away from him. And so what happens is the result is not God's lacking in power, And so what happens is the result is not God's lacking in power, not God's lacking in love. But as chapter 59, verse 10 says, we grope for the wall like the blind. We grope like those who have no eyes because the Lord has taken away the light. And yet, and yet, says that light will shine. This is chapter 60.

So again, this is all about repentance. And then if you repent, if you turn back to the Lord, here is the redemption that's going to happen. In fact, you're so blind right now, you can't see where to go. But chapter 60, arise, shine for your light has come. The glory of the Lord has risen upon you. Darkness shall cover the earth. Yep.

But the glory will arise upon you. His glory will be seen upon you and nations shall walk by your light. And this is one of the things that coming back to who's light, the light of the Jewish people, fulfilling the promises, fulfilling the covenant and fulfilling the covenant in Jesus. This is what Jesus extends, right? Doesn't Jesus make it very clear that his disciples have to live like salt and light? Jesus makes it very clear that his disciples have to be a light in this world. And here is Isaiah prophesying that this is what's going to happen. When you walk in Christ, you're not only walking in the light, but you are participating in the light and you're bringing light to the world.

That's why we can't put our light under a bushel basket, because people need to see what God has done in your life. People need to see what God has done in the lives of those who follow him so they can see it and say, wait, that could happen in my life. That could be me right there. And so we're thankful for Isaiah 59 and 60 because it does talk about that need for repentance. And also that when we do repent, we can be the light of the world. When God is the light of the world, then we can have that light in us for the rest of

the world. Now, the lamentation for Israel in chapter 19, it's a short chapter, which is, you know, contrasted with chapter 16, which is the longest chapter, but talks about the lions and talks about the vine. And this is, again, let's give some context. It says, the lioness was your mother among lions and she lurked in the midst of the young lions, rearing her whelps, and she brought up one of these lions. And we think, okay, who is this lion? And is this like a real person? Is this not a real person? And the answer that a lot of commentators have said, yeah, that's a real person. So the mother is Jerusalem, right? The mother is the tribe of Judah. Remember the lion of Judah

is really, really critical. And so we're talking about a lion that grows up as a young lion, lion, I'm not saying line, L-I-N-E, that's a lion, L-I-O-N, that we'd say that, okay, this is the lion of Judah. And so that first lion would likely be that king who was known as Jehoahaz. Remember Jehoahaz was the son of King Josiah and Jehoahaz only reigned a few months, but he was not good. His reign was short, it was evil, it was brutal, and then he was removed, essentially, right? They brought him in chains to the land of Egypt. He was taken prisoner to Egypt in about 609 BC, after only being a king for three months. Then another line comes up, and this would be the next king, not Jehoahaz, but King Jehoiachin. Now there was Jehoakim with an M at the end and

Jehoiachin with an N at the end. I've also heard his name pronounced Jehoachin with a kind of soft ch, Jehoachin. But Jehoachin is how I committed to saying it when we were reading 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles. So let's continue on with this maybe potential mispronunciation. King Jehoiachin of Judah, he reigned after Jehoahaz, right? From 609 to about 597. He also was not great. As he says, he became a young lion. He learned to catch prey. He devoured men. So again, not one of the great kings, but one who would continue spreading misery around. And so what happened is that he was caught and he was caught by the king of Babylon and they put him into chains and brought him away. So this is Jehoahaz, that first lion and Jehoakim, who that second lion then brought into exile. And this is a lamentation

because it didn't have to happen this way. It didn't have to happen this way. And then now the lamentation of the vine is another thing, because this could be talking about King Zedekiah, right? So this gets planted, it gets planted by King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon, but Zedekiah gets made into being a king, being a vassal king, right? And yet, planted in the wilderness and devoured her fruit. And so she's not even a strong branch, wilderness and devoured her fruit. And so she's not even a strong branch, a scepter for ruling. She's not suited to rule. And Zedekiah was the last of the kings of the line of David until Jesus Christ establishes his reign as the promised Messiah, the promised king. Now the line keeps going on, right? That's L-I-N-E. The line keeps going on of the lion of Judah. But from Zedekiah

until Jesus, the royal line of David goes underground. This is why Ezekiel is offering this lament, because he knows the promises that were made to David, that his dynasty would not end, that there would be a descendant of him set upon the throne. And Zedekiah is the last one. And we don't know, how is God going to redeem this? How is God going to fix this? And imagine imagine for hundreds and hundreds of years, the people of Israel are wondering this question because the line of Judah is still there, but the line of kings has gone underground.

And you just wonder like, what is he going to do now? And this is us so often walking in the wilderness, walking in uncertainty, walking in darkness, just like Isaiah says in chapter 59. And yet we know that we hold on to our father's hand. When we walk in darkness, we hold on to our father's hand and he will lead us to that place of light. And we have Jesus who is our light. He brings us to the world and we bring that light to the world. Am I mixing metaphors? I don't know, but it seems a lot to make sense to me. What a great gift to be able to be with you today

and all these days for the last 219 days to becoming friends, becoming a community where we pray for each other. And I'm asking you to keep on praying for me. I will keep on, I promise. I keep on praying for you. My name is Father Mike, and I cannot wait to see you tomorrow.

God bless.