The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 254: Judgment of Nations (2023)

Episode Date: September 11, 2023

Fr. Mike continues reading from the book of Jeremiah and emphasizes God’s judgment against the nations surrounding Israel. Fr. Mike also invites us to meditate on the words of the prophets and repent for our own failures and shortcomings. Today’s readings are Jeremiah 47-48, Lamentations 2, and Proverbs 18:1-4. 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 254. We're reading today from Jeremiah chapter 47 and 48, as well as Lamentations chapter 2, diving even more deeply into Jeremiah's journey through the city of

besieged Jerusalem. Also Proverbs chapter 18 verses 1 through 4. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe and receive daily updates delivered to wherever you listen to your podcast. As I said, it is day 254. We're reading Jeremiah chapter 47 and 48, Lamentations 2, Proverbs 18, verses 1 through 4. The book of Jeremiah chapter 47. Judgment against the Philistines. The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the Philistines

before Pharaoh struck Gaza. Thus says the Lord, behold, waters are rising out of the north and shall become an overflowing torrent. They shall overflow the land and all that fills it, the city and those who dwell in it. Men shall cry out, and every inhabitant of the land shall wail. At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his stallions, at the rushing of his chariots, at the rumbling of their wheels, the fathers look not back to their children, so feeble are their hands. Because of the day that is coming to destroy all the Philistines, to cut off from Tyre and Sidon every helper that remains. For the Lord is destroying the Philistines,

the remnant of the coastland of Kaphtor. Baldness has come upon Gaza. Ashkelon has perished. O remnant of the Anakim, how long will you gash yourselves? Ah, sword of the Lord, how long till you are quiet? Put yourself into your scabbard, rest and be still. How can it be quiet when the Lord has given it a charge? Against Ashkelon and against the seashore he has appointed it. Chapter 48. Judgment against Moab. Concerning Moab, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Woe to Nebo, for it is laid waste. Kiriathayim is put to shame, it is taken, the fortress is put to shame and broken down. The renown of Moab is no more. In Heshbon,

they planned evil against her. Come, let us cut her off from being a nation. You also, O madmen, shall be brought to silence. The sword shall pursue you. Listen, a cry from Horonaim. Desolation and great destruction. Moab is destroyed. A cry is heard as far as Zoar. For at the ascent of Luhith, they go up weeping. For at the descent of Horonaim, they have heard the cry of destruction. Flee, save yourselves, be like a wild donkey in the desert, for because you trusted in your strongholds and your treasures, you also shall be taken. And Chemoth shall go forth into exile with his priests and his princes. The destroyer shall come upon every city, and no city shall escape. The valley shall perish, and the plain shall be destroyed,

as the Lord has spoken. Give wings to Moab, for she would fly away. Her cities shall become a desolation, with no inhabitant in them. Cursed is he who does the work of the Lord with slackness, and cursed is he who keeps back his sword from bloodshed. Moab has been at ease from his youth and has settled on his dregs. He has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, nor has he gone into exile. So his taste remains in him, and his scent is not changed. Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I shall send to him tilters who will tilt him and empty his vessels and break his jars in pieces. Then Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, their confidence. How do you say we are heroes and mighty men of war? The destroyer of Moab and

his cities has come up and the choicest of his young men have gone down to slaughter, says the king, whose name is the Lord of hosts. The calamity of Moab is near at hand, and his affliction hastens apace. Bemoan him, all you who are round about him, and all who know his name. Say, How the mighty scepter is broken, the glorious staff. Come down from your glory, and sit on the parched ground, O inhabitant of Dibon. For the destroyer of Moab has come up against you. He has destroyed your strongholds. Stand by the way and watch, O inhabitant of Aroar.

Ask him who flees and her who escapes. Say, what has happened? Moab is put to shame, for it is broken. Wail and cry. Tell it by the Arnon that Moab is laid waste. Judgment has come upon the table land, upon Holon, and Jazah, and Mephaath, and Dibon, and Nebo, and Beth-de-blathaim, and Kiriathaim, and Beth-gamul, and Beth-maon, and Kiriath, and Bozrah, and all the cities of the land of Moab, far and near. The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken, says the Lord.

Make him drunk, because he magnified himself against the Lord, so that Moab shall wallow in his vomit, and he too shall be held in derision. Was not Israel a derision to you? Was he found among thieves, that whenever you spoke of him, you wagged your head. Leave the cities and dwell in the rock, O inhabitants of Moab. Be like the dove that nests in the sides of the mouth of a gorge. We have heard of the pride of Moab. He is very proud.

Of his loftiness, his pride and his arrogance, and the haughtiness of his heart. I know his insolence, says the Lord. His boasts are false. His deeds are false. Therefore, I wail for Moab. I cry out for all Moab. For the men of Kir-Herez, I mourn. More than for Jazzer, I weep for you, O vine of Sibma. Your branches passed over the sea, reached as far as Jazer. Upon your summer fruits and your vintage, the destroyer has fallen. Gladness and joy have been taken away from the fruitful land of Moab. I have made the wine cease from the wine presses. No one treads them with shouts of joy.

The shouting is not the shout of joy. Heshbon and Elahala cry out. As far as Jehaz they utter their voice from Zoar to Horonaim and Eglath-sheleshiah. For the waters of Nimrim also have become desolate. And I will bring to an end in Moab, says the Lord, him who offers sacrifice in the high place and burns incense to his God. Therefore my heart moans for Moab like a flute, and my heart moans like a flute for the men of Kir-Herez. Therefore, the riches they gained have perished. For every head is shaved, and every beard cut off. Upon all the hands are gashes, and on the loins is sackcloth. On all the housetops of Moab and in the squares there is nothing but lamentation.

For I have broken Moab like a vessel for which no one cares, says the Lord. How it is broken! How they wail! How Moab has turned his back in shame! So Moab has become a derision and a horror to all that are round about him. For thus says the Lord, Behold, one shall fly swiftly like an eagle, and spread his wings against Moab. The cities shall be taken, and the strongholds seized. The heart of the warriors of Moab shall be in that day like the heart of a woman with her labor pains. Moab shall be destroyed, and be no longer a people, because he magnified himself against the Lord. Terror, pit, and snare are before you, O inhabitant of Moab, says the Lord. He who flees from the terror shall fall into the pit,

and he who climbs out of the pit shall be caught in the snare. For I will bring these things upon Moab in the year of their punishment, says the Lord. In the shadow of Heshbon, fugitives stop without strength. For a fire has gone forth from Heshbon, a flame from the house of Sihon. It has destroyed the forehead of Moab, the crown of the sons of Tumult. Woe to you, O Moab! The people of Chemosh is undone. For your sons have been taken captive and your daughters into captivity. Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab in the latter days, says the Lord. Thus far is the judgment on Moab. The Lamentations of Jeremiah, chapter 2. God's warnings are fulfilled.

chapter 2. God's warnings are fulfilled. How the Lord in his anger has set the daughter of Zion under a cloud. He has cast down from heaven to earth the splendor of Israel. He has not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger. The Lord has destroyed without mercy all the habitations of Jacob. In his wrath, he has broken down the strongholds of the daughter of Judah. In his wrath he has broken down the strongholds of the daughter of Judah. He has brought down to the ground in dishonor the kingdom and its rulers. He has cut down in fierce anger all the might of Israel. He has withdrawn from them his right hand in the face of the enemy. He has burned like a flaming fire in Jacob, consuming all around.

He has bent his bow like an enemy, with his right hand set like a foe. And he has slain all the pride of our eyes. In the tent of the daughter of Zion he has poured out his fury like fire. The Lord has become like an enemy. He has destroyed Israel. He has destroyed all its palaces, laid in ruins its strongholds. And he has multiplied in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation. He has broken down his booth like that of a garden, laid in ruins the place of his appointed feasts. The Lord has brought to an end in Zion appointed feast and Sabbath,

and in his fierce indignation has spurned king and priest. The Lord has scorned his altar, disowned his sanctuary. He has delivered into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces. A clamor was raised in the house of the Lord, as on the day of an appointed feast. The Lord determined to lay in ruins the wall of the daughter of Zion. He marked it off by the line. He restrained not his hand from destroying. He caused rampart and wall to lament. They languished together. Her gates have sunk into the ground. He has ruined and broken her bars. Her king and princes are among the nations. The law is no more, and her prophets obtain no vision from the Lord. The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence.

They have cast dust on their heads and put on sackcloth. The maidens of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground. My eyes are spent with weeping. My soul is in tumult. My heart is poured out in grief because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because infants and babies faint in the streets of the city. They cry to their mothers, where is bread and wine? As they faint like wounded men in the streets of the city, as their life is poured out on their mother's bosom. What can I say for you? To what compare you, O daughter of Jerusalem?

What can I liken to you that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For vast as the sea is your ruin, who can restore you? Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions. They have not exposed your iniquity to restore your fortunes, but have seen for you oracles false and misleading. All who pass along the way clap their hands at you. They hiss and wag their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem. Is this the city which was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?

All your enemies rail against you. They hiss, they gnash their teeth. They cry, we have destroyed her. Ah, this is the day we longed for. Now we have it. We see it. The Lord has done what he planned, has carried out his threat. As he ordained long ago, he has demolished without pity. He has made the enemy rejoice over you and exalted the might of

your foes. Cry aloud to the Lord, O daughter of Zion. Let tears stream down like a torrent day and night. Give yourself no rest, your eyes no respite. Arise, cry out in the night at the beginning of the watches. Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord. Lift your hands to him for the lives of your children who faint for hunger at the head of every street. Look, O Lord, and see with whom have you dealt thus. Should women eat their offspring, the children of their tender care? Should priest and prophet be slain, the children of their tender care?

Should priest and prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? In the dust of the streets lie the young and the old. My maidens and my young men have fallen by the sword. In the day of your anger, you have slain them, slaughtering them without mercy. You invited as to the day of an appointed feast my terrors on every side. And on the day of the anger of the Lord, none escaped or survived. Those whom I dandled and reared, my enemy destroyed. The book of Proverbs chapter 18 verses 1 through 4.

He who is estranged seeks pretexts to break out against all sound judgment. A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion. When wickedness comes, contempt comes also, and with dishonor comes disgrace. The words of a man's mouth are deep waters. The fountain of wisdom is a gushing stream. Father in heaven, we give you praise. We thank you so much. Thank you for your word. Once again, spoken to us today, we ask you to please fill our hearts and our minds with your words that we can see and love like you see, like you love. Make us more and more like you by filling our hearts and filling our minds with the way you speak, the way you see, the way you act, the way you love, the way you bring about justice. God, help us to understand your heart. Help us to understand you so that we can get closer to you, so that we can trust you more deeply, and so that we can be your image,

your image in this world. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. It is worth noting that chapter 18 of Proverbs, verse two, gosh, oh man, here it goes. A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.

Convicting? I don't know. Maybe. Possibly. A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion. I think we can put that on a, stitch that on a pillow, put that on a t-shirt somewhere. Gosh, because that is, I mean, that is so often where we find ourselves. I don't necessarily need to know.

I just want to let you know what I think. Okay, that's really important apparently. But here we are making a podcast where I tell you, here's what I think. Actually, what I want to communicate, obviously, on day 254 is not just what I think, but what has the word of God been speaking to us? One of the things that as we go through these last chapters of Jeremiah, it's almost anticlimactic. Not really exactly, but here's the judgments of the Lord against the nations surrounding Israel. And so we know that Israel received judgment. We know that Israel had received the judgment of God through Nebuchadnezzar in the kingdom of Babylon. But here we have in chapters 49 and 50 and 51, they're very long chapters, all these judgments

against the nations. So we have the judgment against the Philistines, the judgment against Moab today. And in that we recognize, this is one of the pieces, you know, we're coming to the end of the prophets in a pretty significant way. I mean, we're going to, we're still here prophetic words and, and we're still going to encounter God's conviction, but it's very important that the words of the prophets that call for repentance, or you know, Jeremiah, he called for bracing because here comes the judgment of God, that the words of the prophets are not kept distant from each one of us. That when we're conscious of having rebelled against the Lord, and when I say rebelled

against the Lord, I even mean just taking him for granted. I mean, even just being indifferent to the Lord. I mean, recognizing that there are some things in our lives that we just kind of pick and choose. Like there's some things, I'll pay attention to this one. I'm not gonna pay attention to that thing. Here's God who, yeah, he's all about mercy and I'll be all about that.

But yeah, his justice, I just kind of ignore that piece. Or here's God who is love. Absolutely, that's so good.'s God who is love. Absolutely. That's so good. But then this is really difficult to hear about how God actually declares judgment. You know, he declares condemnation upon people. And I'll talk to so many people or they'll write to me and contact me and say, I can't believe a good God would, would ever judge someone, would ever allow destruction, whatever, even, you know, let someone choose hell. We recognize, oh my gosh, as we listen to God's word, he loves his people so fully. In fact, we know this. He loves perfectly.

He loves infinitely. There is no stopping his love. He is faithful. He is true. He is so good. And he calls people to repentance. If they don't say yes, if they don't change their lives, he allows them to get what they've chosen. Now, again, God allows pain in people's lives. He allows suffering. He allows a Nebuchadnezzar to come along to try to wake us up, but he will allow us to get what we've chosen. And so what we need to do is we need to, sorry, let me clarify. What I need to do is I need to look at my life and say, okay, God, I have been reading the prophets for, gosh, it's been what, 90 days, maybe more. Have I repented?

Have I picked and chosen the places I want to repent and ignored the places I don't want to repent? Or have I surrendered and said, God, my whole life, you get my whole life. What are the things that I'm doing that I should, I need to stop doing? What are the things that I'm doing that I need to stop doing? What are the things I'm not doing that you need me to do for me to be yours? And this is the reality. I mean, Lamentations is just like we had Job,

we've had some other moments of honest prayer, honest, genuine, authentic prayer, where here is Jeremiah, who is praying about what he's seeing. He's talking to the Lord about what he's seeing. And he recognizes that God's involved in this. Even when there is judgment, even when there's condemnation, even when there is destruction and death.

Okay, but God, you're involved in this. You're part of this. And it's not your fault, but you, oh God, who are good, have allowed this to happen. In fact, you've brought it about so you can save our souls, so you can save the people of Israel. And I just wonder sometimes, how long? How long the Lord is going to give me, right?

How long is the Lord going to give our culture? How long is the Lord going to give us as a people, both as a church and as a people on this planet? I remember, I think it was Billy Graham who once said that if the Lord doesn't bring judgment to the United States of America, then he owes Sodom and Gomorrah a huge apology. And we realize, yeah, we could be like Jeremiah. Lord, I'm an unclean person living among people of unclean lips. And that's not to look at the people around us rather than our own hearts, but it is to look at our own hearts and say, okay, God,

where do you need me to convert? We're coming, as I said, coming to the end of Jeremiah, and we're kind of in the middle-ish of Lamentations. And so just a couple days left where we can allow the Lord to convict our hearts before we launch into our next messianic checkpoint, Matthew, which I'm really excited for. So hopefully this wasn't overly subdued. I'm so grateful to allow the Lord to speak and say, you know what? Come back to me with your whole heart and to allow the story of Jeremiah, to allow his poem of lamentations to not simply be something from way back when, but to recognize this is a mercy of God and he's calling me to repent to him before he needs

to extend it to me, this same severe mercy. Anyways, that is really what's true. I'm like, wow, I'm thinking about listening to myself thinking, wow, kind of a downer, bro. And at the same time, well, it's real and we're not going to make light of something that is something that that's the challenge from the Lord's word today. It's not my word today. It is the Lord's word. So, oh, gosh, for us to live in grace as we repent, as we come back to the Lord, as we look for our blind spots and ask the Lord to reveal them to us, we need his grace. We need his help.

And so we need each other. We need to pray for each other. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.