The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 226: Unfaithful Israel (2022)

Episode Date: August 14, 2022

In our reading of Proverbs 14, Fr. Mike reinforces that freedom is not the same thing as license, true freedom is the power to do what we ought. Fr. Mike also reflects on Jeremiah's repudiation of Israel's cult worship and how its distorted sexuality had serious consequences. Today's readings are Jeremiah 3, Ezekiel 29-30, and Proverbs 14:13-16. 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 226. Well done, everybody. We're reading from Jeremiah chapter

three. We left Isaiah a couple of days ago. Jeremiah chapter three, Ezekiel 29 and 30, as well as Proverbs chapter 14, 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. You can also subscribe to this podcast in the app by clicking on subscribe and you receive daily episode updates. As I said, this day is day 226.

We're reading Jeremiah chapter 3, Ezekiel chapter 29 and 30, as well as Proverbs chapter 14 verses 13 through 16. The book of the prophet Jeremiah chapter 3, unfaithful Israel. If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the harlot with many lovers. And would you return to me, says the Lord?

Lift up your eyes to the bare heights and see. Where have you not been lain with? By the way sides you have sat awaiting lovers like an Arab in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your vile harlotry. Therefore, the showers have been withheld, and the spring rain has not come. Yet you have a harlot's brow. You refuse to be ashamed. Have you not just now called to me? My father, you are the friend of my youth. Will he be angry forever? Will he be indignant to the end? Behold, you have spoken, but you have done all the evil that you could. A call to repentance. The Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah, have you seen what she did, that

faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree and there played the harlot. And I thought after she has done all this, she will return to me, but she did not return. And her false sister Judah saw it. She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her false sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the harlot. Because harlotry was so light to her, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree. Yet for all this, her false sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart,

but in pretense, says the Lord. And the Lord said to me, Faithless Israel has shown herself less guilty than false Judah. Go and proclaim these words toward the north and say, Return, faithless Israel, says the Lord. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, says the Lord. I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your guilt that you rebelled against the Lord your God and scattered your favors among strangers under every green tree and that you have not obeyed my voice, says the Lord.

Return, O faithless children, says the Lord, for I am your master. I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. And I will give you shepherds after my own heart who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. And when you have multiplied and increased in the land in those days, says the Lord, they shall no more say the ark of the covenant of the Lord. It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed.

It shall not be made again. At that time, Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, and all nations shall gather to it, called the throne of the Lord, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart. In those days the house of Judah shall join the house of Israel, and together they shall come from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers for a heritage. I thought how I would set you among my sons and give you a pleasant land, a heritage most beauteous of all nations. And I thought you would call me my father

and would not turn from following me. Surely, as a faithless wife leaves her husband, so have you been faithless to me, O house of Israel, says the Lord. A voice on the bare heights is heard, the weeping and pleading of Israel's sons, because they have perverted their way, they have forgotten the Lord their God. Return, O faithless sons, I will heal your faithlessness. Behold, we come to you, for you are the Lord our God. Truly, the hills are a delusion, the orgies on the mountains. Truly, in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel. But from our youth, the shameful thing has devoured all for

which our fathers labored, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. Let us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonor cover us, for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day, and we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God. The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, Chapter 29 Prophecy Against Egypt In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me.

Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt. Speak and say, Thus says the Lord God. Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lies in the midst of his streams, that says, My Nile is my own, I made it. I will put hooks in your jaws, and make the fish of your streams stick to your scales. And I will draw you up out of the midst of your streams, with all the fish of your streams, which stick to your scales. And I will cast you forth into the wilderness, you and all the fish of your streams. You shall fall upon the open field, and not be gathered and buried. To the beasts of the earth, and to the birds of your streams, you shall fall upon the open field and not be gathered and buried.

To the beasts of the earth and to the birds of the air I have given you as food. Then all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord, because you have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel. When they grasped you with the hand, you broke and tore all their shoulders. And when they leaned upon you, you broke and made all their loins to shake. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, behold, I will bring a sword upon you and will cut off from you man and beast, and the land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste. Then they will know that I am the Lord, because you said the Nile is mine and I made it. Therefore, behold, I am against you and against your streams. And I will make the land of Egypt and utter waste and desolation from Migdal to

Sain, as far as the border of Ethiopia, no foot of man shall pass through it. And no foot of beast shall pass through it. It shall be uninhabited 40 years. And I will make the land of Egypt, a desolation in the midst of desolated countries, and her cities shall be a desolation forty years among cities that are laid waste. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them among the countries. For thus says the Lord God, At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the peoples among whom they were scattered, and I will restore the fortunes of Egypt and bring them back to the land of Pathros,

the land of their origin, and there they shall be a lowly kingdom. It shall be the most lowly of the kingdoms, and never again exalt itself above the nations. And I will make them so small that they will never again rule over the nations. And it shall never again be the reliance of the house of Israel, recalling their iniquity when they turn to them for aid. Then they will know that I am the Lord God. In the 27th year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me. Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, made his army labor hard against Tyre. Every head was made bald and every shoulder was rubbed bare. Yet neither he nor his army got anything from Tyre to pay for the labor that he had performed

against it. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, Behold, I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and he shall carry off its wealth and despoil it and plunder it, and it shall be the wages for his army. I have given him the land of Egypt as his recompense for which he labored, because they worked for me, says the Lord God. On that day I will cause a horn to spring forth to the house of Israel, and I will open your lips among them. Then they will know that I am the Lord. Chapter 30 Lamentation for Egypt. The word of the Lord came to me, son of man,

prophesy and say, thus says the Lord God. Well, alas for the day, for the day is near. The day of the Lord is near. It will be a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations. A sword shall come upon Egypt and anguish shall be in Ethiopia, when the slain fall in Egypt, and her wealth is carried away, and her foundations are torn down. Ethiopia, and Put, and Lod, and all Arabia, and Libya, and the people of the land that is in league, shall fall with them by the sword. Thus says the Lord, Those who support Egypt shall fall, and her proud might shall come down, from Migdal to Syene. They shall fall within her by the sword, says the Lord God. And she shall be desolated in the midst

of desolated countries, and her cities shall be in the midst of cities that are laid waste. Then they will know that I am the Lord when I have set fire to Egypt, and all her helpers are broken. On that day swift messengers shall go forth from me to terrify the unsuspecting Ethiopians, and anguish shall come upon them on the day of Egypt's doom, for behold, it comes. Thus says the Lord God, I will put an end to the wealth of Egypt. By the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, he and his people with him, the most terrible of the nations, shall be brought in to destroy the land, and they shall draw their swords against Egypt and fill the land with the slain. And I will dry up the Nile and will sell the land into the hand of evil men. I will bring

desolation upon the land and everything in it by the hand of foreigners. I, the Lord, have spoken. Thus says the Lord God, I will destroy the idols and put an end to the images in Memphis. There shall no longer be a prince in the land of Egypt, so I will put fear in the land of Egypt. I will make Pathros a desolation and will set fire to Zoan and will execute acts of judgment upon Thebes.

And I will pour my wrath upon Pelusium, the stronghold of Egypt, and cut off the multitude of Thebes. And I will pour my wrath upon Pelusium, the stronghold of Egypt, and cut off the multitude of Thebes. And I will set fire to Egypt. Pelusium shall be in great agony. Thebes shall be breached and its walls broken down. The young men of On and Pibeseth shall fall by the sword, and the women shall go into captivity. To Hophines the day shall be dark, when I break there the dominion of Egypt, Prophecy against Pharaoh In the eleventh year, in the first month, on the seventh day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me.

Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and behold, it has not been bound up to heal it by binding it with a bandage, so that it may become strong to wield the sword. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will break his arms, both the strong arm and the one that was broken, and I will make the sword fall from his hand. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them throughout the lands. And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon and put my sword in his hand.

But I will break the arms of Pharaoh, and he will groan before him like a man mortally wounded. I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, but the arms of the Pharaoh shall fall, and they shall know that I am the Lord. When I put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, he shall stretch it out against the land of Egypt, and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations

and disperse them throughout the countries, and they will know that I am the Lord. The book of Proverbs chapter 14 verses 13 through 16. Even in laughter the heart is sad, and the end of joy is grief. A perverse man will be filled with the fruit of his ways, and a good man with the fruit of his deeds. The simple believes everything, but the prudent looks where he is going. A wise man is cautious and turns away from evil, but a fool throws off restraint and is careless. Father in heaven, we give you praise. We thank you once again for this day. We thank you for speaking to us. We thank you for calling us to be yours.

And we thank you for giving us the grace to turn to you every day. Once again, please receive our thanks, receive our praise this day and help us to walk in your ways. Help us to be wise, help us to not be foolish, but to be prudent and to use the gifts you've given us well, especially the gift of this day.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Gosh, I think we just have to look at the Proverbs again. Chapter 14 has been just a treasure trove of good things, right? A wise man is cautious and turns away from evil, but a fool throws off restraint and is careless. There's something about this that just, a wise man is cautious and turns away from evil, but a fool throws off restraint and is careless. There's something about this that just a wise man is cautious and turns away from evil, but a fool throws off restraint and is careless. How many times do we recognize or we think that being restrained, right? Having boundaries in our lives is something that actually limits our freedom. In fact, we sometimes confuse freedom for license.

We think that freedom is the ability to do whatever I want. So we throw off restraint, right? And are careless. Whereas the definition of freedom would be the power to do whatever I want. So we throw off restraint, right? And are careless. Whereas the definition of freedom would be the power to do what I ought. And that's a massively different thing. Freedom isn't license. License is I get to do whatever I want, but true freedom is the power, the ability to do what I ought.

And we recognize that that interior freedom, the interior freedom to love like I ought to love, to be able to worship like I ought to be able to worship. So often we're not free, right? So often we don't love like we should. We don't speak like we should. We don't live like we should because we're not interiorly free. But to be able to be that, as it says, wise man is cautious, turns away from evil. To be able to turn away from evil when we see it and not just have the license to do whatever we want, that is an incredible, incredible gift. Yeah, man, what a gift. Speaking of gifts, we have is an incredible, incredible gift. Yeah, man. What a

gift. Speaking of gifts, we have Ezekiel and that prophet. Remember the context of Ezekiel. The context of Ezekiel is he was part of that second deportation. First deportation was Daniel and his bros. Then we had Ezekiel's deportation from Israel or from Judah, right? Jerusalem to Babylon. And then there's going to be, and we're going to hear this in maybe a day or two from now, where Jerusalem is fallen, is destroyed by the Babylonians completely. And everyone else is, except for the blind and the lame, the crippled, are taken from Jerusalem and brought to Babylon. So here is Ezekiel. And what he's doing is pre this final destruction of Jerusalem, well, not final in the sense of ultimate, but you know, that third wave destruction, he has this prophecy against

Egypt. Remember Judah, right? They kept looking to Egypt as a source of their help against the Assyrians, as a source of help against the Babylonians. And so here is Egypt that's unfaithful. They're unfaithful. And yet here are the alliance. This is the temptation that the people of God, the Jewish people had a temptation to make an alliance with

the kingdom of Egypt and with the Pharaoh of Egypt. And so here is Ezekiel saying, do not look to Egypt. Do not look to Egypt to help you. I'd let you know, as he even says, very graphically, I will break the arms of the Pharaoh and I will not bind them up. In fact, it goes on to say that not only will I bring desolation upon the land, this is that's in chapter 30 verse 12, now drive the Nile, bring desolation into the land, sell the land into the hand of evil men. Also, I will use, I'll put my sword into Nebuchadnezzar's hand. I'll put my sword into Nebuchadnezzar's hand and give him my strength. I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon and put my sword in his hand. That's at the end of chapter 30 at verse 24 and in chapter 25. We think like, wait a second, the Babylonians aren't any better than the Egyptians. And you're

absolutely correct. That's which is why when we get to the end of these prophets, they're also going to prophesy against Babylon. Not because they're waiting to prophesy against Babylon, but because they're highlighting the fact that God can even use these evil nations, these sinful people. God can use them to correct the nations. God can use them to correct even his own people. That's what he's doing by sending them into exile, that the Babylonians via Nebuchadnezzar are God's instrument to bring about future repentance of the people of Israel. And so if it sounds very strange that we're like, wait a second, you just said you'll strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, put my sword into his hand. Why is that? Because he's good. Nope, it is not. It is because God is able to use

even those wicked people, evil people to accomplish his ends. Hopefully that makes some sense. As we go back to Jeremiah, remember Jeremiah is, he lived to see the Assyrians. He lived to see the Babylonians. He lived to see the fall and destruction of Jerusalem. But here's the beginning of his ministry. And King Josiah is still alive. Remember Josiah, who did all of that renewal of temple worship. Remember, Jeremiah was originally a priest and Josiah had renewed the temple worship. And he even says, the Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah, have you seen what she

did? Oh, faithless one, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree and played the harlot. Remember, in the days of King Josiah, there were people, days of all the kings, basically, there were people who exchanged worship of God in the temple for cult worship. And so remember, we talked about this before, that every high hill under every green tree, those are places that would be essentially code for false gods, false temples, and not only just false worship, but essentially cult prostitution, if there's any other way to say this. One of the reasons why it's such an appropriate analogy to talk about idolatry in terms of adultery.

It just makes a lot of sense because of the fact that this has to do with not only perverted worship of the Lord, but also a distorted version of how to enter into sexual relationships. And this is back in chapter two. We just heard this yesterday. Here's a line from chapter two in verse 32 and following. It says, can a maiden forget her ornaments or a bride her attire? This is from yesterday. Yet my people have forgotten me days without number. How well you direct your course to seek lovers so that even to wicked women, you have taught

your ways. Also on your skirts is found the lifeblood of guiltless poor. You did not find them breaking in. Now let's go back to this. Can a maiden forget her ornaments or a bride her attire? Think about this in terms of when you were married in the Old Testament, when you're married in the Jewish people, you wore different kinds of clothes that would indicate that you're married. And that's like a wedding ring, essentially. And here's God saying, can you forget? Can you forget the fact that you're married? Would you take off your wedding ring? Would you not wear the clothes that indicate that, no, you're taken. Like you belong to someone else. Someone already loves you and you've already declared you love them.

And yet my people have forgotten me. Days without number. Like it's been 800 years. By the time Jeremiah is preaching, it has been 800 years of this faithlessness of the people of Israel. It goes on to say, so that even to wicked women, you have taught your ways. And this is just one of those things where, you know, sometimes our sin ends with us, right? Well, very, very rarely, but our sin can be our own. It's our own decision, but there's something that's really insidious about even to others, you've taught your ways. It's called the sin of

scandal. And that sin of scandal is not just, I have chosen sin, but I have led others to choose sin by my choosing sin, if that makes any sense. And here is what Jeremiah is saying, that even to wicked women you've taught your ways, also on your skirt is found the lifeblood of guiltless poor. This goes back to chapter 2 and chapter 3. We're going to hear this again and again. I mention this in chapter 2 because of what we hear in chapter 3, where it says, have you seen what she did? This is chapter 2 where it says, have you seen what she did? This is chapter two, verse six. Have you seen what she did?

That faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree and there played the harlot. We recognize again, cult prostitution has a price. Cult prostitution has a price. And that's the price of the innocent people who serve as cult prostitutes. That has a price. And the price is the number of children that are conceived in a cultic prostitution temple, essentially. And so Jeremiah is making these connections here in Jeremiah chapter two, verse 34, also on your skirts is found the lifeblood of guiltless poor. These people are innocent. Those who are forced into essentially

what would be sex trafficking. And the innocent, those children that would be conceived in this cultic prostitution, who then would later often go on to be sacrificed to the false god Moloch. And you realize, gosh, you know, again, our sins rarely end with us, but they extend around us.

They extend to other people have to pay the price, oftentimes, for our own sins. And that's what Jeremiah is often saying here. We're gonna hear him talk about this more and more and more. But today, I think it's enough to recognize that this is the call for all of us to repent and to belong to the Lord, because we can keep saying, like yesterday, I'm busted, but I'm not going to be guilty.

I'm not going to admit my guilt. Or we can say to the Lord, God, you're right. I have given my heart to others. I have given my heart to other gods. I've given my heart to give my life. I based it around other things. But today, today, once again, I just ask you to take me back.

And of course, even asking God to take us back is a response to his invitation to come back to him. And so let's do that. Of course, as I always say, and we always have to point this out, it's not just a matter of us saying, well, that's what I'm going to do. We need God's grace.

None of us is on our own and none of us can do it alone, which is why as part of this community, on day 226, we just keep on interceding for each other and keep on praying for each other because we need each other and we need God. And good news is we have both. We have each other and we have God. So keep praying for each other.

Keep praying for me. I am praying for you. My name is Father Mike, and I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.