The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2023)

Episode Date: January 27, 2023

Today we begin our journey in Egypt and Exodus as Fr. Mike reads about the birth of Moses and the connection between burnt offerings and the sacrifice of the mass. Today's readings are Exodus 1-2, Leviticus 1, and Psalm 44. 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, I'm 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. This is day 27. Let's get started. We are continuing. We've left the patriarchs. That was yesterday. That was the last, gosh, 20 days we were at the patriarchs. And now we're entering into Egypt and Exodus. And so in order to get

through that story, we're beginning it with obviously Exodus chapter one and chapter two. We're also reading Leviticus chapter one and Psalm 44. One of the reasons why we're reading Leviticus chapter one is because, um, God gave that, that particular law, the law of Leviticus, um, around the same time. And so the narrative story, the narrative book is an Exodus and the second reading, essentially, uh, the supplementary, not that it's any less the word of God, but the supplementary book being Leviticus to say, okay, now how it is, what are the rules, what are the laws for living in this community that's going to be set free? Sorry, spoiler. And worshiping in this community that's going to be set free.

And so that's what we're going to go into today. I'm always reading from the Revised Standard Version, the Catholic edition, as well as using specifically the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. When you get the great adventure Bible, one of the things you also get is you get the Bible timeline in the sense that you get, um, all of the, the periods kind of broken down by color. So we've left, um, when it came to the patriarchs, which is purple leading right into Exodus, which is red, um, Egypt and Exodus, which red for the, for the red sea. Let's see

how it's clever. It works that way. If you want to get your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can get that for free by going to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. Again, ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. Also feel free to subscribe to this podcast by just click and subscribe. Again, we are beginning today with Egypt and the Exodus by reading Exodus chapter 1 and chapter 2. Exodus chapter 1. These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. All the offspring of Jacob were 70 persons.

Joseph was already in Egypt. Then Joseph died and all his brothers and all that generation. But the descendants of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly. They multiplied and grew exceedingly strong so that the land was filled with them. Now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, behold, the sons of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply. And if war befall us, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land. Therefore, they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy

burdens. And they built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Ramses. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied, and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the sons of Israel, so they made the sons of Israel serve with rigor, and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they made them serve with rigor. Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shipra and the other Pua, when you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them upon the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him. But if it is a daughter, she shall live. But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded

them, but let the male children live. So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, why have you done this and let the male children live? The midwives said to Pharaoh, because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and are delivered before the midwife comes to them. So God dealt well with the midwives and the people multiplied and grew very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, every son that is born to the Hebrews, you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live. Now, a man from the house of Levi

went and took to a wife, a daughter of Levi. The woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes, and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. And she put the child in it, and placed it among the reeds at the river's bank. And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, and her maidens walked beside the river, and she saw the basket among the reeds, and sent her maid to fetch it. When she opened it, she saw the child,

and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children. Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women who can nurse the child for you? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. So the girl went and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages. So the woman took the child

and nursed him. And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she named him Moses, for she said, because I drew him out of the water. One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together, and he said to the man that did the wrong, why do you strike your fellow? He answered, Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian? Then Moses was afraid and thought, Surely the thing is known.

When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well. Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and filled their troughs to water their father's flock. The shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and helped them and watered their flock. When they came to their father Reuel, he said,

How is it that you have come so soon today? And they said, An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and even drew water for us and watered the flock. He said to his daughters, And where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him that he may eat bread. And Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah.

She bore a son, and he called his name Gershom. For he said, I have been a sojourner in a foreign land. In the course of those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the sons of Israel groaned under their bondage and cried out for help, and their cry under bondage came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God saw the sons of Israel, and God knew their condition.

The third book of Moses, commonly called Leviticus, chapter 1. your offering of cattle from the herd or from the flock. If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish. He shall offer it at the door of the tent of meeting that he may be accepted before the Lord. He shall lay his hand upon the head of the burnt offering and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. Then he shall kill the bull before the Lord and Aaron's sons, the priests, shall present the blood, and throw the blood round and against the altar that is at the door of the tent of meeting. And he shall flay the burnt offering and cut it into pieces. And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall put fire on the altar, and lay wood in order upon the fire. And Aaron's sons, the priests, shall lay the pieces, the head and the fat, in order upon the wood that is on the fire upon the altar,

but its entrails and its legs shall be washed with water. And the priest shall burn the hole on the altar as a burnt offering, an offering by fire, a pleasing odor to the Lord. If his gift for a burnt offering is from the flock, from the sheep or goats, he shall offer a male without blemish, and he shall kill it on the north side of the altar before the Lord. And Aaron's sons, the priests, shall throw its blood against the altar round about, and he shall cut it into pieces with its head and its fat. And the priest shall lay them in order upon the wood that is on the fire upon the altar, but the entrails and the legs he shall wash with water. And the priest shall offer the whole, and burn it on the altar. It is a burnt offering, an offering by fire, a pleasing odor to the Lord. If his offering to the Lord is a burnt offering of birds, he shall bring his offering of turtle doves or of young

pigeons. And the priest shall bring it to the altar, and wring off its head, and burn it on the altar. And its blood shall be drained out on the side of the altar, and he shall take away its crop with feathers, and cast it beside the altar on the east side, in the place for ashes. He shall tear it by its wings, but shall not divide it asunder. And the priest shall burn it on the altar, upon the wood that is on the fire. It is a burnt offering, an offering by fire, a pleasing order to the Lord. Psalm 44 What deeds you performed in their days, in the days of old. With your own hand, you drove out the nations, but you planted them. You afflicted the peoples, but you set them free. For not by their own sword did they win the land, nor did their own arm give them victory,

but your right hand and your arm and the light of your countenance, for you delighted in them. You are my king and my God, who ordained victories for Jacob. Through you, we push down our foes. Through your name, we tread down our assailants. For not in my bow do I trust, nor can my sword save me. But you have saved us from our foes and have put to confusion those who hate us. In God, we have boasted continually, and we will give thanks to your name forever. Yet you have cast us off and abased us, and have not gone out with our armies. You have made us turn back from the foe, and our enemies have gotten spoil. You have made us like sheep for the slaughter, and have scattered us among the nations.

You have sold your people for a trifle, demanding no high price for them. You have made us the taunt of our neighbors, the derision and scorn of those about us. You have made us a byword among the nations, a laughingstock among the peoples. All day long my disgrace is before me, and shame has covered my face, at the words of the taunters and the revilers, at the sight of the enemy and the avenger. All this has come upon us, though we had not forgotten you or been false to your covenant. Our heart has not turned back,

nor have our steps departed from your way, that you should have broken us in the place of jackals and covered us with deep darkness. If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread forth our hands to a strange God, would not God discover this? For he knows the secrets of the heart. No, for your sake we are slain all the day long and accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

Rouse yourself. Why do you sleep, O Lord? Awake, do not cast us off forever. Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression? For our soul is bowed down to the dust. Our body clings to the ground. Rise up, come to our help, deliver us for the sake of your merciful love. Father in heaven, we give you thanks. We praise your name and give you thanks for bringing us to a new day. We give you thanks for bringing us a new day of your word where we can hear you speak to our hearts and to our minds that when we are living in a place of confusion, a place of darkness, where it feels like for no reason you have cast us off, we know that you will never abandon us because your word declares it, Lord.

Your word declares that you will never abandon us because your word declares it, Lord. Your word declares that you will never abandon us even when we are in darkness and even when we walk in the midst of pain. You are always there with us. And so we trust in you. And today we declare our faith in you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son

and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Man, oh man, my friends, here we are on the first day. Well, it's the 27th day, but the first day of reading the book of Exodus, the book of Leviticus. And it just begins a new chapter, literally a new book in our story as we follow the people of Israel and follow the people of God. These are our ancestors. And one of the things that reading the Old Testament reveals to us is how deeply invested God is in his people, how deeply he loves them, even though, even though, gosh, here we are. We're talking the space between the end of the book of Genesis and the beginning of the book of Exodus is hundreds of years. It's not just

turn the page and here we are the next week or the next month. This is roughly 300 years later, possibly 400. I need to check on that. I need my dates, my goodness. But this is basically 1900 BC is when we pick up our story right here with the story of Moses. And what is the story? The story is here is God's people that he had rescued from starvation, rescued from famine through Joseph and through Joseph's brother's evil actions. But then as Exodus says, a new Pharaoh came to power who did not know Joseph. And the people of Israel were blessed. This is really interesting because we say like, oh my gosh, did God abandon the people of Israel in Egypt? Because here they are,

slaves, here they are having to serve with rigor, as our translation says. And at the same time, the word of God reveals to us, no, God did not abandon them. In fact, he blessed them. He made them exceedingly strong. He made them exceedingly fruitful, that they became a vast people, even in the midst of the people of Egypt. It's an evidence that even while they were being worked with rigor, even while they were being worked with rigor, even though they were being worked as slaves, that God was with them, just like he was with Joseph when Joseph was in prison, when Joseph was rejected.

And we know this because here is the people of Israel who are growing in their families. They're being blessed with children. And one of the things that is kind of the underscore of this whole thing is that children are a blessing. Children being one of the greatest blessings that God can give to any couple, the blessing that God can give to any family. And today I just want to take a moment just to pray for all moms who are pregnant, as well as for all moms who have been having a difficult time with pregnancy and not been able to get pregnant. All couples who have been unable to conceive because we hear

the word of God and we know, gosh, Lord, the blessing of children. You are with your people, even when they are enslaved and you gave them the blessing of family. You gave them the blessing of life. And now I just want to ask you, Lord God, in the name of your son, Jesus Christ, to all those couples who are listening to this and praying with us in the course of this Bible in a year podcast, those couples that are longing to get pregnant, those couples that are longing for a healthy pregnancy. We just ask Lord in the name of your son, Jesus Christ, to bless these couples in your name, Jesus.

We ask you to send your Holy spirit to bless these couples, to be with them in their desire for children, to be with them in their waiting, to be with them, God willing, if it's your will, Lord, in their conceiving and bringing to this world new life. We also, Father, in the name of your son Jesus, ask for your blessings upon all those who have had the heartbreak of losing children, who have the heartbreak of miscarrying, of the heartbreak of having children who are stillborn. Lord God, we ask you to ease the heartache of those couples who are listening to this and praying with us who have lost their own children.

Please be with them now. Console their heart. They are our family. They are our friends. And they are known to you, God, because you do. You continue to give us blessings even when things are dark, even when things are confusing, even when we do not know where you are. You may be hidden, but you are not absent. Lord God, you may be unseen, but you are

not inactive. So Lord God, right now in this moment, in the name of your son, Jesus, console the hearts of those couples, console the hearts of those families. They either long for children or have lost children. Yeah, Lord God, we pray. Leviticus, man, the first chapter here is on burnt offerings. We dive right into it. They don't like have any preamble. It's just like, hey, when you come to the altar of the Lord, here's what you need to do.

A couple of things that are really important about this. One is there are a couple parts of worship here, and this is going to be really important because this actually relates to our worship now in the Christian dispensation, right? In the new covenant, the new covenant is the covenant in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so there is an old covenant that we're seeing unfold in Leviticus. And the first thing that happens is here is the man who brings you the father of the family. We'd be the priest of the family, right? Uh, that the, here's the man. Well, actually let's clarify. Originally, we're going to see an Exodus that the father of the family is the priest of the family. What happens in the midst of the middle of Exodus, when the people of Israel turned to the worship,

the golden calf is that we have this new, um the people of Israel turned to worship the golden calf, is that we have this new order of priests, essentially, coming from the tribe of Levi. And so there's a certain sense where the fathers of families kind of, sort of, abdicate, in some ways, their priesthood. Now, that never is completely done with, it's never completely taken away, but it is mitigated and in some ways related to the tribe of Levi and those priests. Because you see this one-two punch, essentially, where here is the father who brings the burnt offering, whether that be the bull, the sheep, the goat, the bird. And there is an element where he participates by bringing his sacrifice and the animal is killed.

And then what happens is, so when the animal is killed, it's not, that sacrifice is not completed. What happens is the animal is killed, but then that the blood of the animal, and we're going to hear this later on in a second. I mean, not today, but in the upcoming weeks and days, the life is in the blood., the life is in the blood. Scripture says life is in the blood. And so as the blood is drained, the Levitical priests,

what do they do? They take the blood and put it on the altar. And that's a sign of like, we're offering up now. This is the moment, not just the death of the animal, but we're offering the sacrifice. The life is in the blood, the sacrifice of the animal to the Lord. When it gets to the altar, when it's poured out on the altar, this is kind of almost the consummation of the sacrifice. And then ultimately in this particular kind of sacrifice in the next few days, we're going to hear about different kinds of sacrifices, but this is the sacrifice of burnt offering. Then the remains of the animal, again, are placed on the wood, which is on fire on the altar and it's burnt up. But we

can see this connection here when it comes to the mass. And here is one of the pieces of connection is that when we have the presentation, right? When we have the behold the lamb of God, not just then, but before this, when we have the, in the mass, the priest says, this is my body and it elevates the Eucharist. And this is my blood and it elevates Jesus in the precious blood. That is like, very similar to this moment of presentation in Leviticus 1 where the animal is killed, but when the blood is poured out on the altar is when the sacrifice is offered to the Lord. And so that's very similar to the moment in the mass

where here's the presentation, right? This is my body elevated. This is my blood elevated. That's the presentation part. But then we have the moment, the moment in the mass where the priest takes our Lord Jesus Christ and says through him, with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

all glory and honor is yours, almighty father, forever and ever. And we all say, amen. That's like, in some ways, the moment where we're offering the sacrifice to the Father. This is when the blood is being poured out onto the altar for the glory of God, for the salvation of the people. And that's what the heart of the Mass is. It's the point of the Mass is for the glory of God, for the salvation of the people. And we participate in that every time we go to mass. That's one of the reasons why we need to become familiar with this book we're reading, not only Exodus,

but also Leviticus, because it is gonna be so important. There are a bunch of connections with how God is asked to be worshiped in the Old Testament and how God asks to be worshiped right now in the new dispensation, in the New Testament, in the new covenant where we are right now. This is so cool. And I cannot wait to be walking with you through Exodus and through the wilderness with the people

of Israel, as well as walking with you through Leviticus and continuing to pray with Psalms and Proverbs in our days to come. Once again, if you're interested in getting ahead and maybe kind of seeing like where we're going to be headed for the course of the next number of days, you can download the reading plan by going to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. And we're going to keep praying for each other. You guys, man, this is such a gift, such a gift to be able to be with you. So it's a gift to be able to walk through scripture with you. You are not walking alone. We are walking together because we're praying for each other as we let God's word wash over us

and give us a new way of seeing the world, give us a new way of seeing our Lord and give us a new way of seeing each other. That's why we have to keep praying for each other. I am praying for you. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to be with you again tomorrow. God bless.