The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 247: True Repentance (2022)

Episode Date: September 4, 2022

Fr. Mike points out the difference between the insincere repentance of King Zedekiah and the people in Jerusalem, and the true repentance of the people in the Book of Judith. The readings are Jeremiah 33-34, Judith 3-5, and Proverbs 16:29-33. 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 247. I know I keep saying this, but well done. Gosh, we're reading a lot of chapters today.

We have five chapters, Jeremiah 33 and 34, Judith 3, 4, and 5, Proverbs chapter 16, verses 29 through 33. 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 by clicking on subscribe and you get daily updates,

receive daily episodes right to your door or whatever device you listen to the podcast on. As I said, it is day 247. We got a lot to get through. So let's get started with Jeremiah 33 and 34, Judith 3, 4, and 5, Proverbs 16 verses 29 through 33. The book of the prophet Jeremiah chapter 33, healing after punishment. The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time while he was still shut up in the court of the guard. Thus says the Lord who made the earth, the Lord who formed it

to establish it. The Lord is his name. Call to me and I will answer you and will tell you great and hidden things which you have not known. For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city and the houses of the kings of Judah, which were torn down to make a defense against the siege mounds and before the sword. The Chaldeans are coming in to fight and to fill them with the dead bodies of men whom I shall strike in my anger and my wrath. For I have hidden my face from this city because of all their wickedness. Behold, I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal them and reveal to them abundance of prosperity and security. I will restore the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel and rebuild them as they were at first. I will cleanse them from

all the guilt of their sin against me, and I will forgive all the guilt of their sin and rebellion against me. And this city shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and a glory before all the nations of the earth who shall hear of all the good that I do for them. They shall fear and tremble because of all the good and all the prosperity I provide for it. Thus says the Lord, in this place of which you say, it is a waste without man or beast, in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate without man or inhabitant or beast, there shall be heard again the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voices of those who sing as they bring thank offerings to the house of the Lord, give thanks to the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for his mercy endures forever.

For I will restore the fortunes of the land as at first, says the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, in this place, which is waste without man or beast, and in all of its cities, there shall again be habitations of shepherds resting their flocks. In the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the Shephelah, and in the cities of the Negev, in the land of Benjamin, the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, flocks shall again pass under the hands of the one who counts them, says the Lord. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

In those days and at that time, I will cause a righteous branch to spring forth for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days, Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called. The Lord is our righteousness. For thus says the Lord, David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel. And the Levitical priests shall never lack a man in my presence to offer burnt offerings, to burn cereal offerings, and to make sacrifices forever. The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. Thus says the Lord, if you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night

will not come at their appointed time, then also my covenant with David, my servant may be broken so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne and my covenant with the Levitical priests, my ministers, as the host of heaven cannot be numbered and the sands of the Lord came if I have not established my covenant with day and night and the ordinances of heaven and earth, then I will reject the descendants of Jacob and David, my servant, and will not choose one of his descendants to rule over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for I will restore their fortunes and will have mercy upon them. Chapter 34, Death in Captivity Predicted for Zedekiah The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,

and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth under his dominion, and all the peoples were fighting against Jerusalem and all of its cities, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, go and speak to Zedekiah, king of Judah, and say to him, thus says the Lord, behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire. You shall not escape from his hand, but shall surely be captured and delivered into his hand. You shall see the king of Babylon eye to eye, and speak with him face to face, and you shall go to Babylon. Yet hear the word of the Lord, O Zedekiah king of Judah. Thus says the Lord concerning you, you shall not die by the sword, you shall die in peace. And as spices were burned for your fathers, the former kings who were before you,

so men shall burn spices for you and lament for you, saying, Alas, Lord, for your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so men shall burn spices for you and lament for you, saying, Alas, Lord, for I have spoken the word, says the Lord. Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem, when the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah that were left, Lachshish and Azekah, for these were the only fortified cities of Judah that remained. Treatment of Hebrew Slaves The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, after King Zedekiah, had made a covenant with

all the people in Jerusalem, to make a proclamation of liberty to them, that every one should set free his Hebrew slaves, male and female, so that no one should enslave a Jew his brother. And they obeyed, all the princes and all the people who had entered into the covenant that everyone would set free his slave, male or female, so that they would not be enslaved again. They obeyed and set them free. But afterward, they turned around and took back the male and female slaves they had set free and brought them into subjection as slaves.

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord. Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I made a covenant with your fathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying, at the end of six years, each of you must set free the fellow Hebrew who has been sold to you and has served you six years. You must set him free from your service. But your fathers did not listen to me or incline their ears to me. You recently repented and did what was right in my eyes by proclaiming liberty each to his neighbor, and you made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name. But then you turned around and profaned my name when each of you took back his male and female slaves whom you had set free according to their desire, and you brought them into subjection to be your slaves. Therefore, thus says the Lord, you have not obeyed me by

proclaiming liberty, everyone to his brother and to his neighbor. Behold, I proclaim to you liberty to the sword, to pestilence and to famine, says the Lord. I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. And the men who transgress will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. And the men who transgressed my covenant and did not keep the terms of the covenant which they made before me, I will make like the calf which they cut in two and pass between its parts. The princes of Judah, the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf, and I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their lives. Their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth. And Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his princes,

I will give into the hands of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their lives, into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, which has withdrawn from you. Behold, I will command, says the Lord, and will bring them back to this city, and they will fight against it and take it and burn it with fire. I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant. The book of Judith, chapter 3, Entreaties for Peace. and herds and all our sheepfolds with their tents lie before you. Do with them whatever you please. Our cities also and their inhabitants are your slaves. Come and deal with them in any way that seems good to you. The men came to Helophranes and told him all this. Then he went down to the seacoast with his army and stationed garrisons in the hilltop cities and took picked men from them

as his allies. And these people and all in the country round about welcomed him with garlands and dances and tambourines. And he demolished all their shrines and cut down their sacred groves, for it had been given to him to destroy all the gods of the land, so that all nations should worship Nebuchadnezzar only, and all their tongues and tribes should call upon him as God. Then he came to the edge of Estrella, near Dothan, fronting the great ridge of Judea. Here he camped between Geba and Sethopolis, and remained for a whole month in order to assemble all the supplies for his army. Chapter 4. Judea Prepares for Defense. By this time the people of Israel living in Judea heard of everything that Holofernes,

the general of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the Assyrians, had done to the nations, and how he had plundered and destroyed all their temples. They were therefore very greatly terrified at his approach, and were alarmed both for Jerusalem and for the temple of the Lord their God. For they had only recently returned from the captivity, and all the people of Judea were newly gathered together, and the sacred vessels and the altar and the temple had been consecrated after their profanation. So they sent to every district of Samaria and to Kona and Beth-haron and Belma'in and Jericho and to Choba and Asorah and the valley of Salem, and immediately seized all the high hilltops and fortified the villages on them and stored up food in preparation for war, since their fields had recently been harvested. And Joachim, the high priest who was in Jerusalem at that time, wrote to the people of Bethulia and Bethumestaim, which faces Estralon opposite

the plain near Dothan, ordering them to seize the passes up into the hills, since by them Judea could be invaded. And it was easy to stop any who tried to enter, for the approach was narrow, only wide enough for two men at the most. Israel's prayer and penance. So the Israelites did as Joachim the high priest and the senate of the whole people of Israel in session at Jerusalem had given order. And every man of Israel cried out to God with great fervor, and they humbled themselves with much fasting. They and their wives and their children and their cattle and every resident alien and hired laborer and purchased slave, they all clothed themselves with sackcloth. And all the men and women of Israel and their children living at

Jerusalem prostrated themselves before the temple and put ashes on their head and spread out their sackcloth before the Lord. They even surrounded the altar with sackcloth and cried out in unison, praying earnestly to the God of Israel not to give up their infants as prey and their wives as booty, and the cities they had inherited to be destroyed, and the sanctuary to be profaned and desecrated to the malicious joy of the Gentiles. So the Lord heard their prayers and looked upon their affliction. For the people fasted many days throughout Judea and in Jerusalem before the sanctuary of the Lord Almighty. And Joachim, the high priest, and all the priests who stood before the Lord and ministered to the Lord, with their loins clothed with sackcloth, offered the continual burnt offerings and the vows and freewill offerings

of the people. With ashes upon their turbans, they cried out to the Lord with all their might to look with favor upon the whole house of Israel. Chapter 5. Holofernes' Council Against the Israelites. When Holofernes, the general of the Assyrian army, heard that the people of Israel. Chapter 5. Holofernes' Council Against the Israelites. When Holofernes, the general of the Assyrian army, heard that the people of Israel had prepared for war and had closed the passes in the hills and had fortified all the high hilltops and set up barricades in the plains, he was very angry. So he called together all the princes of Moab and the commanders of Ammon and all the governors of the coastland and said to them, Tell me, you Canaanites, what people is this that lives in the hill country? What cities do they inhabit?

How large is their army and in what does their power or strength consist? Who rules over them as king leading their army? And why have they alone, of all who live in the west, refused to come out and meet me? Achior's report. Then Achior, the leader of all the Ammonites, said to him, Let my lord now hear a word from the mouth of your servant, and I will tell you the truth about this people that dwells in the nearby mountain district. No falsehood shall come from your servant's mouth.

This people is descended from the Chaldeans. At one time they lived in Mesopotamia because they would not follow the gods of their fathers who were in Chaldea. For they had left the ways of their ancestors, and they worshipped the God of heaven, the God they had come to know. Hence they drove them out from the presence of their gods, and they fled to Mesopotamia and lived there for a long time. Then their god commanded them to leave the place where they were living and to go to

the land of Canaan. There they settled and prospered with much gold and silver and very many cattle. And to go to the land of Canaan. of them and set them to making bricks and humbled them and made slaves of them. Then they cried out to their God and he afflicted the whole land of Egypt with incurable plagues. And so the Egyptians drove them out of their sight. Then God dried up the Red Sea before them and he led them by the way of Sinai and Kadesh Barnea and drove out all the people of the wilderness. So they lived in the land of the Amorites, and by their might destroyed all the inhabitants of Heshbon. And crossing over the Jordan, they took possession of all the hill country. And they drove out before them the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites,

and the Shechemites, and all the Gergesites, and lived there a long time. As long as they did not sin against their God, they prospered, for the God who hates iniquity is with them. But when they had departed from the way which he had appointed for them, they were utterly defeated in many battles, and were led away captive to a foreign country. The temple of their God was razed to the ground, and their cities were captured by their enemies. But now they have returned to their God, and have come back from the places to which they were scattered, and have occupied Jerusalem where their sanctuary is and have settled in the hill country because it was uninhabited. Now therefore, my master and Lord,

if there is any unwitting error in this people and they sin against their God and we find out their offense, then we will go up and defeat them. But if there is no transgression in their nation, then let my Lord pass them by, for their Lord will defend them and their God will protect them. And we shall be put to shame before the whole world. Nakior had finished saying this.

All the men standing around the tent began to complain. Holofernes's officers and all the men from the seacoast and from Moab insisted that he must be put to death. For they said, we will not be afraid of the Israelites. They are a people with no strength or power for making war. The book of Proverbs chapter 16 verses 29 through 33. A man of violence entices his neighbor and leads him in a way that is not good. He who winks his eyes plans perverse things. He who compresses his lips brings evil to pass. A hoary head is the crown of glory. It is gained in a righteous life. He who is slow to anger is

better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. The lot is cast into the lap, but the decision is wholly from the Lord. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory as always. Gosh, Lord, every single day we praise you and we give you thanks. Help us to walk in your ways. Help us to belong to you. Help us to pick up our cross daily and to follow after you daily, to deny ourselves daily and to be yours

every single day. We make this prayer in the name of Jesus, in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen. You guys, again, two days in a row, some of these proverbs are just, well, they're always great, right? Obviously we say this before. A hoary head is the crown of glory. It is gained in a righteous life. Hoary head, what do you mean? Well, hoarfrost, right, is frost that's on the tree. So it's white. So basically, get gray hair is the crown of glory.

That's what he's saying. A white head or a gray hair is a crown of glory gained in a righteous life. But here is one. It's verse 32. He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty. Okay, great. And he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. Man, that is so good. Better the person who can rule their own spirit than the one who takes a city. One of the things we realize is that it's really easy to tell others what to do. It is really easy to know what they should do.

It is difficult to know what we should do. It's even more difficult to get ourselves to do. It is really easy to know what they should do. It is difficult to know what we should do. It's even more difficult to get ourselves to do that thing. Man, what a great gift to be able to rule yourself, to be able to lead yourself and to say, yep, I submit to God's word. I submit to God's will. I submit to God's law. I submit to the law of grace. Just an incredible, incredible gift to be able to do. So, okay. Jeremiah 33 and 34, so much goodness in here. The promise of God, remember that Jeremiah, he's still imprisoned. He says, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time while he was still shut up in the court of the guard. And ah, so good.

What does God say? He says, call to me and I will answer you. This is great. Thus says the Lord, call to me and I will answer you. Jeremiah, you are in prison for not doing anything wrong. You simply said what I wanted you to say and now you're in prison. But I want you to know, call to me and I will answer you. Again, the context, Jeremiah is in prison.

The city is still under siege. God hasn't removed the Babylonians. He hasn't set Jeremiah free, but he's reminding him. Call to me and I will answer you. And this is so important for us. We heard it when it came to Daniel, who was praying on behalf of the people and it took three weeks for the angel of the Lord to arrive. Just because God is quiet doesn't mean he's absent, right? If he's silent, doesn't mean he's absent. If it doesn't seem like he hears,

it doesn't mean that he doesn't care. Here's God speaking to Jeremiah, these powerful words. And also he says, I love this in chapter 33. And beginning with, say, Rome, verse 9, it says, this city shall be to me a name of joy. After he talks about all the wickedness that's going to have to come upon it, a lot of dead bodies are going to fill a lot of area. But verse 10, in this place, which you say, it's a waste without man or beast, in the cities of Judah, streets of Jerusalem that are desolate without man or inhabitant or beast, there shall be heard again the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride,

the voices of those who sing as they bring their thank offerings to the house of the Lord. And this is so good because God is saying, yep, this place is a waste. I mean, this place is going to be destroyed. But, but you're going to hear those sounds, those songs. You're going to hear those things again. In. You're going to hear those things again. In chapter 33, one more thing just to say, it's so incredible talking about the Messiah. It says, ah, this is in verse 13. In the cities of Judah, flocks shall again pass under the hands of the one who counts them.

And I heard someone talk about how the hand of one who counts them is code for Messiah. And you think about that, here is the shepherd. Jesus is the good shepherd, of course. And the shepherd, he counts the sheep as they pass by him. He knows every one of them, calls them by name. He counts them. They're under his hand. And that's so, so incredible. It goes on in verse 14, the days are coming. I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel, the house of Judah. It'll be an incredible, incredible time. And I love this. It talks about how David will be instituted, but he says, I will multiply the Levitical

priests. So there'll be an abundance of priests and they will offer a continual sacrifice all of the time. And you know, it's so interesting. There's a guy who has written commentaries and he is really smart. He's so deep in scripture. He knows so much about the Bible. He got to this and he was saying, you know, I have to admit that I'm, I'm perplexed. I don't know. I don't know what this means. I don't know what it means to say that there's an abundance of priests and, and it just, ah, it's so incredible. He said, it must mean that God is going to do some

kind of priestly work in the age of the Messiah. I don't know what that is though. And I'm here, he's not Catholic. And I'm sitting here thinking, oh my gosh, absolutely. Here is Jeremiah 33, where God promises, he prophesies that no, there will be so many priests and they will offer up continual sacrifice. You guys, for the last 2000 years, we've had this new Testament, this new covenant priesthood, and the church has not ceased to offer up sacrifice day after day. It's incredible. And just to realize how many has been the abundance of priests. And here's Jeremiah 33 fulfilled in our day. Now, just one quick note about Jeremiah 34, before we go into Judith, I'm just going to say one thing about Judith too, but two quick notes. Okay. Didn't mean to fool

you. Two quick notes. One is Zedekiah prediction. He's going to be carted off to Babylon. Now, we might know this already if we remember from 2 Kings, the end of 2 Kings. What's going to happen? Zedekiah, Nebuchadnezzar is going to come to Jerusalem. And in front of his very eyes, Zedekiah, his sons will be killed in front of his very eyes. And then his eyes will be gouged out. So the last thing he's ever seen are his children being murdered in front of him. And then he'll be led into Babylon and then he will die. And here, Jeremiah says, you'll die in peace, meaning you won't be killed by the sword, which I guess is a

consolation in some ways, but isn't the greatest thing because Zedekiah was not faithful. In fact, then Jeremiah gives an example of how unfaithful he is. This is in chapter 34, verse eight, where Zedekiah, he made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim liberty to all the slaves, male, female slave, everybody who's been enslaved, you have to be set free. Now, remember in the law of Moses, you could have a slave for six years. And then in the seventh year, they had to be set free. They had to be, and this is, this is more like indentured servitude than anything else. It's not chattel slavery. Like we're familiar with here in the United States or I guess

in modern times. I heard someone give this example. I thought it was really brilliant. It was the idea that you're in bankruptcy. You don't have bankruptcy court. You don't have anywhere else to turn. It's the idea of you can't pay your restaurant bill. You can wash some dishes.

Amplified, obviously, by six years. But it's that sense of I can't pay my debts. What can I do? Well, I'm going to go to work for this person for six years and I'll be able to pay off my debts that way. Now, at the same time, it was never, ever intended to be for life. And so God said, here's the deal. Every seventh year, you set them free, right? That covenant year, that Shabbat year, you have to set them free, but they weren't doing this. So here comes Zedekiah and says, you know, we got to listen to what God has said. We're going to do what God has asked.

And so they, it looks like they're repenting, but, oh, this is so interesting. Two things to keep in mind. One is I don't think they're repenting because the moment Babylon turns away from the gates, like Babylon had to go off and fight some other battles and so left Jerusalem, not as much under siege anymore. The moment they turned away, they thought they were saved. They took their slaves back. And you think, oh my gosh, that is unprecedented. That has never happened in the history of Israel,

where they set a slave free and then took them all back, like went back on their word and went back on that gift of liberty. And it's just crazy, which is why God says, okay, listen, you weren't willing to proclaim liberty. I will proclaim liberty for you. Here's the liberty. I proclaim to you liberty to the sword. I proclaim liberty to pestilence and to famine. And this is just so crazy because he says, you've not obeyed me by proclaiming liberty to his brother and to his

neighbor. Therefore, I proclaim to you liberty. You have the freedom to die by the sword. You have the freedom to die by pestilence. You have freedom to die by famine because you took back those slaves. And also, not only were they not repenting, but they were maybe looking out for themselves. Remember, there's a siege going on in the city of Jerusalem, and you run out of food. You run out of materials. But if you have a slave, you have to feed them. You have to take care of them. And so it could very well be that Zedekiah had said, hey, let's set all the slaves free so that we don't have to care for them. So again, far from this being an actual act of repentance, this could be simply an act of deception, deviousness, and trying to get out of trouble essentially. But again, it ends in disaster

because at the end of chapter 34, God says, I'm bringing Babylon back and they're going to destroy your city. Your repentance was not real. Now, Judith, things are ramping up, right? We have the people of Israel and they are being faithful. In this case, they are saying, no, we're genuinely going to come before the Lord. They almost sound like the Ninevites. Remember when Jonah went to preach to Nineveh, the repentance, like, you know, hey,

pretty soon God's going to destroy Nineveh. And everyone put on sackcloth and covered themselves in ashes and proclaimed to fast, you know, no food, no drink. And that is what the people of Israel have done here as they hear that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Assyria, here in Judith, right, of course, is on his way or Holofernes is on his way and they get ready to fight back. And so they're getting ready to throw down. We're going to see what happens. And in two chapters, we're going to be introduced, well, chapter eight, we're going to be introduced to this woman named Judith, who is one of the heroines of the Old Testament. Anyways, gosh, you guys, here we are taking each step forward each single day. I am so grateful for you. I'm so proud of you. I am praying for you. Please, please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.