The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 234: Jeremiah Complains (2022)

Episode Date: August 22, 2022

Fr. Mike teaches us about recognizing our limitations especially when trying to compete with God. We also see how the Lord listens to Jeremiah’s complaints and responds to him in a peculiar but hopeful way. Today’s readings are Jeremiah 12-13, Ezekiel 41-42, and Proverbs 15:9-12. 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 234. We're reading today from Jeremiah chapter 12 and 13, as well as Ezekiel 41 and 42. We're also praying, or I guess we're praying Proverbs. Why not? Proverbs 15 verses 9

through 12 is 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 by clicking on subscribe and receiving daily episodes and updates. It is day 234. We're reading Jeremiah 12 and 13, Ezekiel 41 and 42, back to the temple, the new temple to be built, and Proverbs 15 verses 9 through 12. The book of the prophet Jeremiah, chapter 12. Jeremiah complains to God. Righteous are you, O Lord, when I complain to you, yet I would plead my case before you.

Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all who are treacherous thrive? You plant them, and they take root. They grow and bring forth fruit. You are near in their mouth and far from their heart. But you, O Lord, know me. You see me and test my mind toward you. Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter and set them apart for the day of slaughter. How long will the land mourn and the grass of every field wither? For the wickedness of those who dwell in it,

the beasts and the birds are swept away because men said he will not see our latter end. If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses? And if in a safe land you fall down, how will you do in the jungle of the Jordan? For even your brothers and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you. They are in full cry after you. Believe them not, though they speak fair words to you. I have forsaken my house. I have abandoned my heritage. I have given the beloved of my soul into the hands of her enemies. My heritage has become to me like a lion in the forest. She has lifted up her voice against me. Therefore, I hate her. Is my heritage to me like a speckled

bird of prey? Are the birds of prey against her roundabout? Go, assemble all the wild beasts, bring them to devour. Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard. They have trampled down my portion. They have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. They have made it a desolation, desolate. It mourns to me. The whole land is made desolate, but no man lays it to heart.

Upon all the bare heights in the desert, destroyers have come for the sword of the Lord devours from one end of the land to the other. No flesh has peace. They have sown wheat and have reaped thorns. They have tired themselves out, but profit nothing. They shall be ashamed of their harvests because of the fierce anger of the Lord. The Lord's answer. Thus says the Lord concerning all my evil neighbors who touch the heritage which I have given my people Israel to inherit. Behold, I will pluck them up from their land, and I will pluck up the house of Judah from among them.

And after I have plucked them up, I will again have compassion on them, and I will bring them again each to his heritage and each to his land. And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people to swear by my name as the Lord lives, even as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they shall be built up in the midst of my people. But if any nation will not listen, then I will utterly pluck it up and destroy it, says the Lord. Chapter 13. The Linen Wastecloth. Thus said the Lord to me, Go and buy a linen wastecloth, and put it on your loins, and do not dip it in water. So I bought a wastecloth according to the word of the Lord, and put it on my loins. And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, Take the wastecloth which you have bought, which is upon your loins, and arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock. So I went and hid it by

the Euphrates as the Lord commanded me. And after many days the Lord said to me, Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take from there the waistcloth which I commanded you to hide there. Then I went to the Euphrates and dug, and I took the wastecloth from the place where I had hidden it. And behold, the wastecloth was spoiled. It was good for nothing. Then the word of the Lord came to me. Thus says the Lord, even so will I spoil the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. This evil people who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly followed their own heart and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this waistcloth, which is good for nothing. For as the waistcloth clings to the loins of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of

Judah cling to me, says the Lord, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen. The jars filled with wine. You shall speak to them this word. Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, every jar shall be filled with wine. And they will say to you, do we not indeed know that every jar will be filled with wine?

Then you shall say to them, thus says the Lord, behold, I will fill with drunkenness all the inhabitants of this land, the kings who sit on David's throne, the priests, the Lord, Behold, I will fill with drunkenness all the inhabitants of this land, the kings who sit on David's throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And I will dash them one against another, fathers and sons together, says the Lord. I will not pity or spare or have compassion that I should not destroy them. Hear and give ear.

Be not proud, for the Lord has spoken. Give glory to the Lord your God before he brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the twilight mountains. And while you look for light, he turns it into gloom and makes it deep darkness. But if you will not listen, my soul will weep in secret for your pride. My eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears because the Lord's flock has been taken captive. Say to the king and the queen mother, take a lowly seat for your beautiful crown has come down from your head. The cities of the Negev are shut up with none to open them. All Judah is taken into exile, wholly taken into exile. Lift up your eyes and see those who come

from the north. Where is the flock that was given you, your beautiful flock? What will you say when they set as head over you those whom you yourself have taught to be friends to you? Will not pangs take hold of you like those of a woman with labor pains? And if you say in your heart, why have these things come upon me? It is for the greatness of your iniquity that your skirts are lifted up and you suffer violence. Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil. I will scatter you like chaff driven by the wind from the desert. This is your lot, the portion I have measured out to you, says the Lord. Because you

have forgotten me and trusted in lies, I myself will lift up your skirts over your face and your shame will be seen. I have seen your abominations, your adulteries and neighings, your lewd harlotries on the hills in the field. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! How long will it be before you are made clean? The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, chapter 41. Then he brought me to the nave and measured the jams. On each side six cubits was the breadth of the jams, and the breadth of the entrance was ten cubits,

and the side walls of the entrance were five cubits on either side. And he measured the length of the nave forty cubits and its breadth twenty cubits. Then he went into the inner room and measured the jams of the entrance two cubits on either side. And he measured the length of the nave, forty cubits, and its breadth, twenty cubits. Then he went into the inner room, and measured the jams of the entrance, two cubits, and the breadth of the entrance, six cubits, and the side walls of the entrance, seven cubits. And he measured the length of the room, twenty cubits, and its breadth, twenty cubits, beyond the nave. And he said to me, This is the most holy place. Then he measured the wall of the temple, six cubits thick, and the breadth of the side chambers, four cubits, round about the temple.

And the side chambers were in three stories, one over another, thirty in each story. There were offsets all around the wall of the temple to serve as supports for the side chambers, so that they should not be supported by the wall of the temple. And the side chambers became broader as they not be supported by the wall of the temple, and the side chambers became broader as they rose from story to story corresponding to the enlargement of the offset from story to story round about the temple. On the side of the temple a stairway led upward, and thus one went up from the lowest story to the top story through the middle story. I saw also that the temple had a raised platform round about. The foundations of the side chambers measured a full reed of six long cubits.

The thickness of the outer wall of the side chambers was five cubits, and the part of the platform which was left free was five cubits. Between the platform of the temple and the chambers of the court was a breadth of twenty cubits round about the temple on every side. And the doors of the side chambers opened on the part of the platform that was left free one door toward the north and another door toward the south. And the breadth of the part that was left free was five cubits round about. The building that was facing the temple yard on the west side was seventy cubits broad, and the wall of the building was five cubits thick round about, and its length ninety cubits. Then he measured the temple,

a hundred cubits long, and the yard and the building with its walls a hundred cubits long, also the breadth of the east front of the temple and the yard a hundred cubits. Then he measured the length of the building facing the yard, which was at west, and its walls on either side a hundred cubits. The nave of the temple and the inner room and the outer vestibule were paneled and round about all three had windows with recessed frames. Over against the threshold the temple was paneled with wood round about, from the floor up to the windows, now the windows were covered, to a space above the door even to the inner room and on the outside. And on all the walls round about in the inner room and the nave were carved likenesses of cherubim and palm trees, a palm tree between cherub and cherub.

Every cherub had two faces, the face of a man toward the palm tree on the one side and the face of a young lion toward the palm tree on the other side. They were carved on the whole temple round about. From the floor to above the door, cherubim and palm trees were carved on the wall. The door posts of the nave were squared, and in the front of the holy place was something resembling an altar of wood, three cubits high, two cubits long, and two cubits broad. Its corners, its base, and its walls were of wood. He said to me, This is the table which is before the Lord. The nave and the holy place had each a double door. The doors had two leaves apiece, two swinging leaves for each door. And on the doors of the nave were carved cherubim and palm trees, such as were

carved on the walls, and there was a canopy of wood in front of the vestibule outside. And there were recessed windows and palm trees on either side, on the side walls of the vestibule. Chapter 42. Then he led me out into the inner court toward the north and he brought me to the chambers which were opposite the temple yard and opposite the building on the north the length of the building which was on the north side was a against gallery in three stories. And before the chambers was a passage inward, ten cubits wide and a hundred cubits long, and their doors were on the north. Now the upper chambers were narrower, for the galleries took more away from them than from the lower and middle chambers in the building. For they were in three stories, and they had no pillars like the pillars of the outer court, hence the upper chambers were set back from the ground more than the lower and the middle ones. And there was a wall outside parallel to the chambers,

toward the outer court opposite the chambers, fifty cubits long. For the chambers on the outer court were fifty cubits long, while those opposite the temple were a hundred cubits long. Below these chambers was an entrance on the east side, as one enters them from the outer court, where the outside wall begins. On the south also, opposite the yard and opposite the building, there were chambers with a passage in front of them. They were similar to the chambers on the north of the same length and breadth, with the same exits and arrangements and doors. And below the south chambers was an entrance on the east side where one enters the passage and opposite them was a dividing wall. Then he said to me,

The north chambers and the south chambers opposite the yard are the holy chambers, where the priests who approach the Lord shall eat the most holy offerings. There they shall put the most holy offerings, the serial offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering, for the place is holy. When the priests enter the holy place, they shall not go out of it into the outer court without laying there the garments in which they minister, for these are holy. They shall put on other garments before they go near to that which is for the people. Now when he had finished measuring the interior of the temple area, he led me out by the gate which faced east, and measured the temple area round about.

He measured the east side with the measuring reed, five hundred cubits by the measuring reed. Then he turned and measured the north side, five hundred east side with the measuring reed, 500 cubits by the measuring reed. Then he turned and measured the north side, 500 cubits by the measuring reed. Then he turned and measured the south side, 500 cubits by the measuring reed. Then he turned to the west side and measured 500 cubits by the measuring reed. He measured it on the four sides. It had a wall around it, 500 cubits long and 500 cubits broad, to make a separation between the holy and the common. The book of Proverbs chapter 15 verses 9 through 12. The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord,

but he loves him who pursues righteousness. There is severe discipline for him who forsakes the way. He who hates reproof will die. Sheol and Abaddon lie open before the Lord. How much more the hearts of men! A scoffer does not like to be reproved. He will not go to the wise. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory.

We thank you so much. Thank you, Lord, for the gift of your word. Thank you for the gift of just being able to be part of this community, to know that there are people praying for us, with us, people who are listening to your word, all of us who are broken, all of us who struggle with so many things, and yet we continue to come back to this place.

We continue to allow you to this place. We continue to allow you to speak to us. We continue to give you permission to know our hearts, and you do, and you do speak to us, and you do know our hearts, Lord God. And even in the midst of our woundedness, even in the midst of our brokenness, even in the midst of how we've failed to be the kind of men and women that you've created and redeemed us to be, you still call us back to yourself. Thank you so much. And may you be glorified, may you be praised, may you be loved, not only by the hearts around this world, but also by our hearts. May our hearts be the kinds of hearts that can love you the way you deserve to be loved. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Yeah, gosh, you know, that

proverb where it talks about the foolish doesn't want to be reproved, the foolish doesn't want to be taught. And there's something about this. There's a word, it's called docility. Docility means, I remember when I was a missionary in Central America after I graduated from college. And at one point, one of the priests was talking about the virtue of docility. And I remember a number of our fellow teachers were really kind of brittle to that word. They thought, I don't want to be docile with that kind of like this easily pushover, you know, easily led kind of person. And the priest made a point of saying, well, docility means the kind of person who can be taught. And it makes sense for teachers to to really know the value of having students who are open to being taught as opposed to having students who,

you know, you can't tell me anything because I already know everything. And I remember it was so clear to me how, even as a missionary then, how important it was to be able to have that heart of docility, that sense of, okay, God, whatever it is you need to teach me, I want you to teach me because that's the wise heart. The wise heart is open to being taught. And as Proverbs says, the heart of the fool hates reproof, hates being taught and hates being corrected. So man, that's part of what God gives us when we get to read Jeremiah and Ezekiel and his word all the time is that he continues to correct us. And only if we're open to being corrected, we can apply it to someone else. I mean, for example, here we go, Jeremiah chapter 12 and 13, which is remarkable. I think Jeremiah 12 is beautiful. Jeremiah 13 gets weird, but we're going to get

to that in a second. But in Jeremiah 12, there's that sense where, Lord, you see me, you know me, you test my mind towards you. And there's that sense of the people around me, here's Jeremiah talking, right? Here's Jeremiah talking, right? Here's Jeremiah saying, pull those false people here in Jerusalem, those false people in Judah, pull them out like sheep for slaughter. Like basically just get rid of them

because what's happening around us is, I know it's coming. The Babylonians are going to come. They're going to destroy this place unless you correct us, unless we come back to you. And it goes on to say in verse five in chapter 12, if you have raced with men on foot and they have wearied you,

how will you compete with horses? That's just one of those beautiful, poetic and genius lines. If you've raced with men on foot and they've wearied you, you can't even race with human beings. How will you compete with horses? And that same kind of thing is if you've dealt, Asa goes on to say, for even your brothers in the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you. And there's this piece here where I just need to acknowledge my limitation. I can't even compete with human beings, much less compete with the workings of God, right? It's one of those situations where you can think of any professional sports endeavor or the Olympics or anything like this. And you just realize, I am not able to compete at that level with any of those people. Now, maybe some people who are

part of this journey, like maybe you actually went to the Olympics this year. I don't know. Or maybe you've been to the Olympics in the past. So you know what that's like. But that sense of being able to say, but I can't do all the sports, you know, we just recognize our severe limitation. And that's one of the things that Jeremiah is highlighting. He's saying this saying, okay, so those of us who can't even compete with strong human beings, how in the world are we going to be able to compete with the Lord? And so he complains to God, right? Jeremiah does. And then the Lord answers. And basically God says, behold, this is chapter 12, verse 14, behold, I will pluck them up from their land and I will pluck them from the house of Judah among them. And this is such good news because we even have a note of hope in Jeremiah, even at the beginning of this. Remember, Jeremiah is going to

be preaching over the course of 40 to 50 years. But here's this word of hope in verse 15. And after I've plucked them up, he says, I will again have compassion on them and I'll bring them again, each to his heritage and each to his land. And this is so important. And again, I love this goes on to say, and it shall come to pass if they will diligently learn the ways of my people to swear by my name as the Lord lives. Even as they taught my people to swear by Baal, they shall be built in the midst of my people. Again, there's that sense of like, here's the people who are swearing by Baal, right? They're turning to other false gods and yet I will bring them back and they will learn how to pray in

my name. They will learn how to walk in my name. They'll learn how to live in my name. And that's just this drop, right? In the midst of all this chaos that Jeremiah has to experience, there's this drop of hope where God is saying, yes, this is what's going to happen. Destruction is going to come. Again, remember, Jeremiah is not necessarily, I mean, he is calling them to repentance, but really what he's calling them to do is to brace for impact because it's coming. And if they're not willing to take the easy medicine, the hard medicine is on its way. And that's what's going on. I mentioned that chapter 13 has just a fascinating little image. And the fascinating image is of the linen waistcloth.

If you were to say, what's a linen waistcloth? It sounds like underwear. And the answer would be, that's correct. That's what it is. And so here is Jeremiah. The Lord says to him, go buy some linen waistcloth. So at least when he wore it, it got to be new. It was new underwear. And he wore it on his body. And then it says, go to the Euphrates and hide it

there in the cleft of the rocks and let it basically rot away. But then go back and track it down and find it. And this is the house of Israel. This is the whole house of Judah. He was on to say in verse 11, for as the waistcloth clings to the loins of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise and a glory, but they would not listen. And so they have become like basically ruined underwear. I think that's one of my favorite, maybe I'm a fourth grader, but I think that's maybe one of my favorite images of any of the prophets in the entire Bible that we've come across so far. And again, that's just me because my sense of humor is in the fourth grade level,

but it works, right? I mean, we get the depth of this. Now, lastly, as we're getting to the end of chapter 13, we have this, gosh, God is making it very clear that he says in verse 15, he says, hear and give ear, be not proud for the Lord has spoken. Give glory to the Lord your God before he brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the twilight mountains. And while you look for light, he turns it into gloom and makes it deep darkness. Gosh, there's that sense of come back to the Lord while there's still time. And it's one thing for us to hear these words and think, man, why didn't they turn back to the Lord? And it's one thing for us to hear these words and think, man, why didn't they turn back to the Lord? And it's another thing for us to hear these words and say, maybe that's me.

Maybe that's me right now. Maybe that's what God is asking of me at this moment is, is there any way, anywhere, any place in my life right now where God's just saying, hey, come back to me. This is an area where you've drifted from me, and this is an area where you may have grown cold to me, and this is where I'm asking you to come back to me. It's one of the gifts of, gosh, you know, diving deeply into these prophets is that not only do we get the context, right? You know, here's Ezekiel having this vision of the temple for the next, you know, number of chapters after this, whereas Jerusalem has already fallen, the temple has already been destroyed, but also here is Jeremiah and the

temple hasn't been destroyed yet. And he's still calling those people back to be able to say, okay, wait, where in my life is God asking me to surrender my heart? Where in my life is God asking me to say, okay, I'm his now, I'm his always, I'm his forever? That's a great question that I'm asking myself today as we listen to this word of God, as we ask the Lord to convict our hearts and bring us home. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Brother Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.