The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 267: Indifference and Apathy (2023)

Episode Date: September 24, 2023

Fr. Mike introduces us to the books of Ezra and Haggai, explaining the Israelites' return to the promised land. He also warns us against apathy and indifference in our relationship with God, as we see Israel display towards the temple. Today's readings are Ezra 1-2, Haggai 1-2, and Proverbs 20:1-3. 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 267. We are in a new time period, the period of the return. You might have heard Jeff and me, Jeff and me, Jeff and I, Jeff and I, no, Jeff and me, Jeff and me talk about

this new time period. We have the return. The people of Israel have been in exile in Babylon, and they are now going to be set free, heading back to the promised land. Now, remember that Cyrus, king of Persia, you're going to hear his name today, Cyrus, king of Persia, they had conquered the Babylonians. And because in the book of the prophets, it talked about a Cyrus would be raised up and he would send his people back to their homeland, back to the promised land. And so Cyrus does this. So we're reading Ezra chapter one and two, which is our historical book, as well as Haggai chapter one and two, which is a prophetic book. We're also reading Proverbs chapter 20 verses one through three. 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 then you would be subscribed. As I said, it's 267. We're reading Ezra chapters one and two, Haggai chapter one and said, it's 267. We're reading Ezra chapters one and two, Haggai chapter one and two, which is the entire book, as well as Proverbs chapter 20 verses one through three. The book of Ezra chapter one, the end of the Babylonian captivity. In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished. The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also

put it in writing. Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel. He is the God who is in Jerusalem and let each survivor in whatever place he sojourns be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts besides freewill offerings for the house of God, which is in Jerusalem. Then rose up the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the Lord,

which is in Jerusalem. And all who were about them aided them with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, with beasts, and with costly wares, besides all that was freely offered. Cyrus the king also brought out the vessels of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and placed in the house of his gods. Cyrus king of Persia brought these out in charge of Mithridath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazar the prince of Judah. And this was the number of them, a thousand basins of gold, a thousand basins of silver, 29 censers, 30 bowls of gold, 2,410 bowls of silver, and a thousand other vessels. All the vessels of gold and of silver were 5,469. All these did Sheshbazar bring up when the exiles were brought up from

Babylonia to Jerusalem. Chapter 2. List of returned exiles. Now these were the people of the province who came up out of the captivity of those exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had carried captive to Babylonia. They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town. They came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Saraiah, Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Saraiah, Re'aliah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mizpar, Bigvi, Rechum, and Ba'ana. The number of the men of the sons of Israel, the sons of Parosh, 2,172. The sons of Shephatiah, 372. The sons of Arah, 775. The sons of Pahath-Moab, namely the sons of Jeshua and Joab, 2,812. The sons of Elam, 1,254.

The sons of Zatu, 945. The sons of Zakkai, 760. The sons of Bani, 642. The sons of Bebai, 623. The sons of Asgad, 1,222. The sons of Adonikam, 666. The sons of Bigvi, 2,056. The sons of Adin, 454. The sons of Atar, namely of Hezekiah, 98 The sons of Bizzai, 323 The sons of Jorah, 112 The sons of Hashum, 223 The sons of Gibar, 95

The sons of Bethlehem, 123 The men of Netophah, 56 The men of Anathoth, 128 The sons of Asmaveth, 42. The sons of Kiriatharim, Shephirah, and Be'eroth, 743. The sons of Ramah and Geba, 621. The men of Mikmas, 122. The men of Bethel and Ai, 223 The sons of Nebo, 52 The sons of Magbish, 156 The sons of the other Elam, 1,254

The sons of Harim, 320 The sons of Lod, Hadid, and Ono, 725 The sons of Jericho, 345 The sons of Sina'a, 3,630. The priests, the sons of Jediah, of the house of Jeshua, 973. The sons of Emer, 1,052. The sons of Pashur, 1,247. The sons of Harim, 1,017. The Levites, the sons of Jeshua and Kadmiel, of the sons of Hodoviah, 74. The singers, the sons of Asaph, 128. The sons of the gatekeepers, the sons of Shalom, the sons of Atar, the sons of Talman, the sons of Akub, the sons of Hatitah, and the sons of Shobai, in all 139.

The temple servants, the sons of Zihah, the sons of Hasufah, the sons of Tabaoth, the sons of Keros, the sons of Siachah, the sons of Paddan, the sons of Lebanon, the sons of Hagabah, the sons of Akub, the sons of Hagab, the sons of Hegab, the sons of Shamlai, the sons of Hainan, the sons of Gidel, the sons of Gahar, the sons of Re'iah, the sons of Rezin, the sons of Nekodah, the sons of Gazam, the sons of Uzzah, the sons of Passiah, the sons of Bassai, the sons of Asnah, the sons of Meunim, the sons of Nefissim, the sons of Bakbuk, the sons of Bakbuk, the sons of Hakufah, the sons of Harhur, the sons of Bazluth, the sons of Mahida, the sons of Harsha, the sons of Barkos, the sons of Sisera, the sons of Tima, the sons of Niziah, and the sons of Hatifah,

the sons of Solomon's servants, the sons of Sotai, the sons of Hasaphareth, the sons of Perudah, the sons of Jaalah, the sons of Darkon, the sons of Gedel, the sons of Shephetiah, the sons of Hatil, the sons of Pokareth Hazabaim, and the sons of Ammi. All the temple servants and the sons of Solomon's servants were 392. The following were those who came up from Telmala, Telhasha, Cherub, Adan, and Emer, though they could not prove their father's houses or their descent whether they belonged to Israel, the sons of Deliah, the sons of Tobiah, and the sons of Nechudah, 652. Also of the sons of the priests, the sons of Habiah, the sons of Hakoz, and the sons of Barzillai, who had taken a wife from the daughters of Barzillai, the Gileadite, and was called by their name. These sought their registration among those enrolled in the genealogies,

but they were not found there, and so they were excluded from the priesthood as unclean. The governor told them that they were not to partake of the most holy food until there should be a priest to consult Urim and Thummim. The whole assembly together was 42,360 besides their men servants and maid servants, of whom there were 7,337, and they had 200 male and female singers. Their horses were 736, their mules were 245, their camels were 435, and their donkeys were 6,720. Some of the heads of families, when they came to the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem, made freewill offerings for the house of God to erect it on its site. According to their ability, they gave to the treasury of the work 61,000 derricks of of gold, five thousand minas of silver, and one hundred

priests' garments. The priests, the Levites, and some of the people lived in Jerusalem and its vicinity, and the singers, the gatekeepers, and the temple servants lived in their towns, in all Israel, in their towns. The Book of Haggai, Chapter 1. The Command to Rebuild the Temple. In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel, the son of Sheltiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehoshadak, the high priest. Thus says the Lord of hosts, This people say, The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.

Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies in ruins? Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, Consider how you have fared. You have sown much and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough. You eat, but you never have enough. You drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm.

And he who earns wages, earns wages to put them into a bag with holes. Thus says the Lord of hosts, Consider how you have fared. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it, and that I may appear in my glory, says the Lord. You have looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why, says the Lord of hosts, because of my house that lies in ruins, while you busy yourselves each with his own house.

Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. And I have called for a drought upon the land and the hills, upon the grain, the new wine, the oil, upon what the ground brings forth, upon men and cattle, and upon all their labors. The people obey. Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the words of Haggai the prophet as the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared before the Lord.

Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord's message. I am with you, says the Lord. And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts their God on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month. Chapter 2. The Splendor of the Temple In the second year of Darius, the king, in the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet.

Speak now to Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to all the remnant of the people, and say, Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not in your sight as nothing? Yet now take courage, O Zerubbabel, says the Lord. Take courage, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Take courage, all you people of the land, says the Lord. Work, for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts, according to the promise that I made you when you came out of Egypt. My spirit abides among you. Fear not.

For thus says the Lord of hosts. Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations so that the treasures of all nations shall come in. And I will fill this house with splendor, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine and the gold isor, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine and the gold is mine, says the Lord of hosts. The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give prosperity, says the Lord of hosts. A rebuke and a promise. On the 24th day of the ninth month in the second year of Darius,

the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet. Thus says the Lord of hosts, Ask the priests to decide this question. If one carries holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and touches with his skirt bread or pottage or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy? The priests answered, No. Then Haggai said, If one who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean? The priests answered, It does become unclean. Then Haggai said, So is it with this people, and with this nation before me, says the Lord, and so with every work of their hands, and what they offer there is unclean.

Please now, consider what will come to pass from this day onward. Before a stone was placed upon a stone in the temple of the Lord, how did you fare? When one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten. When one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were but twenty. I struck you in all the products of your toil with blight and mildew and hail, yet you did not return to me, says the Lord. Consider from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Since the day that the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid, consider, is the seed yet in the barn? Do the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree still yield nothing? From this day on, I will bless you. God's promise to Zerubbabel.

The word of the Lord came a second time to Haggai on the 24th day of the month. Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth, and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I am about to destroy the heavens and the earth, and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and overthrow the chariots and their riders, and the horses and their riders shall go down, every one by the sword of his fellow. On that day, says the Lord of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, says the Lord, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, says the Lord of hosts. The book of Proverbs chapter 20 verses 1 through 3. Wine is a mocker, strong drink a

brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise. The dread wrath of a king is like the growling of a lion. He who provokes him to anger forfeits his life. It is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife, but every fool will be quarreling. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. We thank you. Thank you for bringing us back to this story. Thank you for bringing us back to this story. Thank you for bringing us back to this place of return,

this opportunity that the people of Israel had to come home, to go to the promised land, even though it was a foreign land to so many of them. We ask you to help us because you know, we know that you've made us for two worlds. You made us for this world and you made us for the next world. And that while this world during this life is our home, this is not our permanent home. You've made us for another home. You've made us for another

world. It is a world that is foreign to us. And oftentimes we are indifferent to it. But Lord God, in this story of return, we ask that you please not only remind us of the story of your people, but also remind us of our destiny. that while we live in this world, we are made for another world. While this world is currently our home, it is not our final and ultimate home. Give us a longing for that home. Give us the will to fight for that home and bring us home ultimately by your grace. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Just really brief. What a gift to have the Proverbs. There are so many good ones. Well, you know, Proverbs 20, verse 1, wine is a mocker, strong drink, a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not

wise. Yeah, just that sense of how many people have let their lives be dominated by alcohol. And yeah, led astray by it is not wise. And also Proverbs 20, verse 3, it is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife, but every fool will be quarreling. And isn't that the case? Like so often we jump into every little fight, every little argument, every little, whether it be nitpicking or every little kind of like every quarrel. And we recognize that way back when we were reading the story of King David, we had asked

that prayer was, God, you show me the battles you want me to fight and the battles you want me to stay clear of. Where do you want me to engage and go up and do battle or engage? I use those words again. And where do you want me to just say, okay, that's a fight, but it's not my fight. To have that wisdom to be able to do that and to not have that wisdom is, as scripture says, to be a fool. So going back to our scriptures today, gosh, it's so good. We have this story of the return, right? The beginning of the return in Ezra. Ezra is a scribe, and we're going to see that chapters one through six in Ezra are going to look a certain way, and then the second half of the book of Ezra is going to look a different way. But the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, originally one contained book. Usually

they're called first and second book of Ezra, but the two books, originally one, probably written the same time as Chronicles. Remember Chronicles is that summary story that we read already, the summary story of God leading his people from slavery in Egypt to freedom to the land, the promised land to exile and back again. So here is the story of back again, right? The story of return. And one of the things we realize is that this beginning of the book of Ezra fulfills the prophecy of Jeremiah, where King Cyrus was named as the one who would let the people of Israel go back to Israel. I believe I have to double check on this one. I thought also that he might be named in Isaiah. I'm going to double check on that. Get back to you because we have a few days with Ezra

and Nehemiah. But there's something really remarkable about this story, that here's God being faithful to his promise. Remember, he brought his people, the people of Israel, into exile, not to destroy them, not at all to destroy them, but to reform their hearts. And now they have the opportunity to go back home. One of the things we're going to see is that not everybody goes back home. In fact, there are a number of waves, kind of like there were waves of people in the exile, three waves. There are going to be three waves of people returning from exile back to Jerusalem. But an interesting thing is not

everyone decides to return. Even though here's Cyrus, king of Persia, who goes into the storehouses of the Babylonians and says, okay, here's all the vessels or many of the vessels, at least that were stolen from the temple of God. You can bring them back, decorate the temple when it's built. And that's what that brings us to, my goodness, easy for me to say, that brings us to the book of Haggai. Haggai, only two chapters long, so it's the second, maybe shortest book of the Old Testament. It can be divided into maybe three parts. And those three parts is, I heard a Bible teacher talk about this, that the first part is apathy, that here's the people who they were brought back to Jerusalem so they could rebuild the temple. You know, all those lists of families, all the Levites, all the priests, they came home

so that they could rebuild the temple. And now it's been 16 years. That's when Haggai's written. It's been 16 years since they've been back and they haven't even started constructing the temple. They're apathetic towards this. They're just building their own homes. And so God points out, yeah, you might've noticed that you're not satisfied. You might've noticed that you drink, but you're not, you know, you're still thirsty. You might've noticed you eat, but you're still hungry. You might've noticed that you keep doing all these things and you're not satisfied. That might have something to do with the fact that you haven't really actually served me. You haven't done what you've been brought back to do, which is to rebuild the temple. So they're apathetic. And second in chapter, they're discouraged because they started rebuilding and things still haven't turned around quite yet.

And thirdly, here is this story of the fact that, okay, unless they reform their lives, there's going to be consequences. It's the same story, right? Of our lives, the same story of the entire Bible. Unless you turn from evil and turn back to the Lord, your sin is not going to end with you. That is going to be passed on to the people around you. It's going to be passed on to the way you end up living. So this is Haggai, the prophet, not only saying, okay, get rid of your apathy, get rid of your indifference to the house of the Lord. Haggai's saying that you don't also don't have to be discouraged. Don't be long in the mouth, long in the face, whatever. Don't be sad. You can actually move forward. God is calling you.

He's going to help you with this project. And then thirdly, reform your lives or else, just like in ancient times, just like in older times, just like for your fathers and your father's fathers and your mothers and your mother's mothers, your evil will not end with you, but will be passed on. So reform now. And it's such a good short book, but also just convicts us because there are areas of our lives where we're apathetic, areas of our lives where we're discouraged, and areas of our lives where we realize I need to reform and turn back to the Lord pronto. And so we ask the Lord to help us turn back to him because we're made for him and he's

given his life for us. So for those wounds of apathy, discouragement, and need for repentance, I am praying for you. And for those same wounds, please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.