The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 274: Perseverance in Opposition (2022)

Episode Date: October 1, 2022

Fr. Mike continues to describe Nehemiah’s process of rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem and encountering a variety of challenges in his calling. He explains that in doing God's work, we will often face internal or external opposition which we must meet with prayer and perseverance, trusting God entirely. Today’s readings are Nehemiah 4-5, Esther 11-12, and Proverbs 20:27-30. 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 274. We are deep in Nehemiah. We're reading Nehemiah chapters 4 and 5.

Also, we're beginning the book of Esther and we begin the book of Esther here in the revised standard version. I'll get to that in just a second. So we're also reading Esther 11 and 12, shock plot twist. And we're also reading Proverbs chapter 20 verses 27 through 30. As always, as I said, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the revised standard version, second Catholic edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. Why does that matter? It matters because the book of Esther is complicated.

There's the story of Esther that is widely accepted by all Christians, essentially. And there are a number of chapters in Esther that are not necessarily accepted by all Christians. In fact, just like when Martin Luther in 1521, was it 1521, 1519, took out the seven books, the Deuteroconical books. He also took out some chapters in Esther. And there's a precedent for having some hesitation, of course, because even someone like St. Jerome had hesitation over some of the Deuterocanonical books and some of the chapters of Esther and some of the other chapters, like in Daniel, we read the story of Susanna and Belle and the dragon way back there, if you can remember all the way back then. But the Orthodox

and the Catholic churches have discerned that these chapters are part of the canon, so they're part of the Deuterocanonical books. And so in order to understand the story fully, chapters 11 and 12 are actually the first two chapters that we're going to be reading so we can get the chronological story of the book of Esther. So hopefully that helps a little bit when you're reading your Bible to say, oh, this makes more sense than not. Hopefully it makes more sense. 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 see that, wait, we're starting with Esther 11 and 12. Yes, you are. You also can subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe and receiving daily episodes and daily updates. As I said, this day

is day 274. We're reading Nehemiah chapter 4 and 5, Esther chapter 11 and 12, that are the first two chapters of Esther, and Proverbs chapter 20, verses 27 through 30. The book of Nehemiah, chapter 4. Hostile plots frustrated. Now, when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he ridiculed the Jews.

And he said in the presence of his brethren and of the army of Samaria, What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore things? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish and the burned ones at that? Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Yes, what they are building.

If a fox goes up on it, he will break down their stone wall. Hear, O our God, for we are despised. Turn back their taunt upon their own heads, and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives. Do not cover their guilt, and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have provoked you to anger before the builders. So we built the wall, and all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work. But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites

heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and that the breaches were beginning to be closed, they were very angry, and they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night. But Judah said, the strength of the burden bearers is failing and there is

much rubbish. We are not able to work on the wall. And our enemies said, they will not know or see till we come into the midst of them and kill them and stop the work. When the Jews who lived by them came, they said to us ten times, From all the places where they live, they will come up against us. So, in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, in open places, I stationed the people according to their families, with their swords, their spears, and their bows. And I looked, and arose, and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord who is great and terrible and fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes. When our enemies heard that it was known to us and that God had frustrated their plan, we all returned to the wall, each to his work.

From that day on, half of my servants worked on construction, and half held spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail. And the leaders stood behind all the house of Judah, who were building on the wall. Those who carried burdens were laden in such a way that each with one hand labored on the work, and with the other held his weapon. And each of the builders had his sword belted at his side while he built. The man who sounded the trumpet was beside me, and I said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, The work is great and widely spread, and we are separated on the wall, far from one another.

In the place where you hear the sound of the trumpet rally to us there, our God will fight for us. So we labored at the work, and half of them held the spears from the break of dawn till the stars came out. I also said to the people at that time, Let every man and his servant pass the night within Jerusalem, that they may be a guard for us by night and may labor by day. So neither I, nor my brethren, nor my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us took off our clothes. Each kept his weapon in his hand.

Chapter 5. Nehemiah deals with oppression. Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brethren. For there were those who said, With our sons and our daughters we are many. Let us get grain, that we may eat and keep alive. There were also those who said, We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of the famine. And there were those who said, We have borrowed money for the king's tax upon our fields and our vineyards. Now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren. Our children are as their children. Yet we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have already been enslaved. But it is not in our power to help it,

for other men have our fields and our vineyards. I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these words. I took counsel with myself, and I brought charges against the nobles and the officials. I said to them, You are exacting interest, each from his brother. And I held a great assembly against them and said to them, We, as far as we are able, have brought back our Jewish brethren who have been sold to the nations,

but you even sell your brethren that they may be sold to us. They were silent and could not find a word to say. So I said, The thing that you are doing is not good. Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God to prevent the taunts of the nations, our enemies? Moreover, I and my brethren and my servants are lending the money and grain. Let us leave off this interest. Return to them this very day, their fields, their vineyards, their olive orchards and their houses and the hundredth of money, grain, wine, and oil, which you have been exacting

of them. Then they said, Amen, and praised the Lord. And the people did as they had promised. The generosity of Nehemiah. Moreover, from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year to the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes the king, twelve years, neither I nor my brethren ate the food allowance of the governor. The former governors who were before me laid heavy burdens upon the people and took from them food and wine besides 40 shekels of silver. Even their servants lorded it over the people. But I did not do so because of the fear of God. I also held to the work on this wall and acquired no land, and all my servants were

gathered there for the work. Moreover, there were at my table a hundred and fifty men, Jews and officials, besides those who came to us from the nations which were about us. Now that which was prepared for one day was one ox and six choice sheep. Fowls likewise were prepared for me, and every ten days skins of wine in abundance. Yet with all this I did not demand the food allowance of the governor, because the servitude was heavy upon this people. Remember for my good, O my God, all that I have done for this people. The Book of Esther Chapter 11 Mordecai's Dream In the second year of the reign of Artaxerxes the Great, on the first day of Nisan, Mordecai, the son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of

Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, had a dream. He was a Jew dwelling in the city of Susa, a great man serving in the court of the king. He was one of the captives whom Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had brought from Jerusalem with Jeconiah, king of Judea. And this was his dream. Behold, noise and confusion, thunders and earthquake, tumult upon the earth. And behold, two great dragons came forward, both ready to fight, and they roared terribly. And at their roaring, every nation prepared for war, to fight against the nation of the righteous. And behold, a day of darkness and gloom, tribulation and distress, affliction and great

tumult upon the earth. And the whole righteous nation was troubled. They feared the evils that threatened them and were ready to perish. Then they cried to God. And from their cry, as though from a tiny spring, there came a great river with abundant water. Light came and the sun rose and the lowly were exalted and consumed those held in honor. Mordecai saw in this dream what God had determined to do, and after he awoke, he had it on his mind and sought all day to understand it in every detail. Chapter 12. Mordecai discovers a plot against the king.

Now Mordecai took his rest in the courtyard with Gabbatha and Thara, two eunuchs of the king who kept watch in the courtyard with Gabbatha and Thara, two eunuchs of the king who kept watch in the courtyard. He overheard their conversation and inquired into their purposes and learned that they were preparing to lay hands upon Artaxerxes the king, and he informed the king concerning them. Then the king examined the two eunuchs, and when they confessed, they were led to execution. The king made a permanent record of these things, and Mordecai wrote an account of them. And the king ordered Mordecai to serve in the court and rewarded him for these things. But Haman, the son of Hamadatha, a Bugian, was in great honor with the king,

and he sought to injure Mordecai and his people because of the two eunuchs of the king. The Book of Proverbs, 20 verses 27 through 30. The glory of young men is their strength, but the beauty of old men is their gray hair. Blows that wound cleanse away evil. Strokes make clean the innermost parts. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. Thank you. Thank you for this day. Thank you for this word, your word to us.

Help us to receive your word with grace, with love, and help it make us wise that we can see everything in light of you, your truth, your will, and your word. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Those of you, old men, who might have some hair that is not the color your hair originally was, you can take not only some solace, you can take some encouragement in Proverbs chapter 20, verse 29. It says the glory of young men is their strength, but the beauty of old men is their gray hair.

And so there you go. Glory of young men is their strength. That's for those pups, whippersnappers, but the beauty of old men is in their gray hair. That sounds like someone who's just being nice to the old guys. Anyways, God's word is good and true. So I got some lighter ones coming in on the sides these days. Nehemiah, Nehemiah chapter four. What have we seen so far? We've seen Nehemiah get back to Jerusalem, get back to Judah, and he's rebuilding this wall. We have a team of people. They're working on whether it be on their own portion or on more portions than just their own. And the work is happening. I mean, just think the Lord's hand has been upon Nehemiah's project this entire time.

It's, it's, it's remarkable how much God has blessed this. I mean, think about Nehemiah in the presence of Artaxerxes and he, Artaxerxes, the King notices that he's down, that he's sad. What's troubling you? Nehemiah prays and tells him and the King says, what do you want to do? And Nehemiah prays and says, I want, you know, letters from you and basically resources to be able to rebuild the wall. And it's just, he's, he's blessed. And so the necessary thing that happens next is he's opposed. I mean, this is one of the things you can have a mission from God that has God's hands all over it and still meet opposition. In fact, in so many ways, every mission of God is going to experience opposition. You know this, and we get to see this played out in the book of

Nehemiah chapters four and five, where you have, you know, Sambalat and you have his other pal, his other pal, Tobiah. Sambalat and Tobiah are ridiculing the Jews. What are you doing? You think you're going to build this wall? And Tobiah has one of the, I heard someone describe it as one of the weakest burns in the entire Bible where he says, yeah, they're building this wall. If a fox goes up on it, he'll break down their stone wall. Like basically that's his insult because it's pretty weak wall. He was saying that it was pretty lame wall, pretty pathetic wall. And I'd say it's pretty weak, lame and pathetic slam. But anyways, but they, they rally against them and they don't just rally against them by offering slams and digs.

They actually go to attack them to kill those who are building the wall. And so Nehemiah describes this. The response is two, a couple of things. Well, the response first is verse nine, chapter four, verse nine. It says in verse eight, they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. Verse nine. And we prayed to our God and set a guard as protection against them day and night.

This is Nehemiah. He's the, he's the man. I mean, honestly, we're only five chapters in, but every single chapter Nehemiah demonstrates that he is not just the man. He's a man of God. This is incredible. He, so he's doing the work of God. He has opposition from the enemies of God. And what is his first move? His first move, we pray to our God. This is how often do we forget to do this? How often do

we neglect to do this? Here's a work of God. He's blessed it, but wait a second, opposition. Well, now I got to fix it myself or I'm going to bail. I'm going to run away. Nehemiah, two things. We prayed to our God, first thing, second thing, and set a guard as protection against them day and night. So Nehemiah, he is trusting fully in the strength of the Lord, but he also is being practical. He turns to the Lord in prayer and he sets a guard as protection against them day and night. And this is absolutely essential for every single one of us.

We pray, trusting in the Lord, us. We pray trusting in the Lord and we work trusting in the Lord. Everything we do, whether we pray or whether we work, whether we sleep, whether we get up, whether we eat or drink, we do it all trusting in the Lord. And so what do they do? They find themselves, half of the people building the wall are building the wall. The other half of the people who are assigned to building the wall are guarding. They're holding swords and spears. They're basically keeping watch, making sure that no one's gonna have a sneak attack. Not only that, but in some places, people were building with the shovels and the other implements of building in one hand

and the sword in the other hand. And they didn't even go back out into the field to sleep. They slept inside those walls that they were building that a fox could knock down. Because why? Because doing the work of God means you're going to experience opposition from the enemies of God. Now, Nehemiah is being blessed, but he's also very cautious, very careful because he's very,

what's it, conscientious is probably the best word. He realizes that the governor's before him. He's serving as governor, right? He says 12 years here, 20th year to the 32nd year of Artaxerxes the king. During that time, he nor his brethren ate the food allowance of the governor. He said, there were former governors who were before me who laid heavy burdens upon the people

and they took from them food and wine besides 40 shekels of silver and they lorded it. Even their servants lorded it over the people. But he said, but I didn't do so because I feared God, because of the fear of God. Let's go back to Solomon. Remember Solomon's and Solomon's son, Rehoboam. When Solomon dies, remember he had worked the people pretty hard. And then Rehoboam had the counsel from the old men who said, Hey, lay off the people. You know, your father worked them really hard. So give them a break and they'll love you. But his, you know, his, as Jeff says,

his friends from high school say, no, you got to be even, even tougher than your old man on these people. And so Rehoboam takes the advice of the young men, ignores the advice of the old men, and he's really hard on the people. And what happens is the kingdom splits. Well, Nehemiah is much wiser than the son of Solomon. And Nehemiah says, yep, former governors, previous governors lorded it over them. Even their servants lorded it over them. They demanded huge payments and taxation from the people. So what I'm going to do, I'm not going to use any of that. I'm not going to tax the people. I'm not going to stress the people. I'm going to ask them, I'm going to invite them to build the wall because

that's what I'm doing here. But for them to provide me with comforts, that's not what I'm doing here. They don't exist to serve me. I'm only here to serve the Lord. And that is so incredible. Nehemiah is an incredible leader. Nehemiah is an incredible man of God. And this is one of the things that we just have this picture. You know, we don't get a lot of consistently virtuous people in the scriptures. I'll say that. We don't get a lot of consistently virtuous people. I mean, you know, Tobit was a little bit, but you know, he even complained a bit. I mean, he had a rough life. And also, let's say, Nehemiah is going to have some opposition internally as well. But he was not perfect. But at the same time, he's consistent. He's consistently generous. He's consistently on mission. He's consistently turning back to the

Lord and doing the practical thing. He turns to the Lord in prayer, like we just read, and he does the practical thing. There is so much to learn about what it is to be a person after God's own heart by reading this book of Nehemiah. And I'm just so grateful that we're going through this together. It's been great. Now, before we close today, we have the, I was going to say the first two chapters of Esther, but we have the 11th and 12th chapters of Esther. One of the things you're going to see is, here's a note. If you don't have the Great Adventure Bible, on the bottom of the first page of the book of Esther, it has this note that I'll read to you now.

It says, the disarrangement, right, they're being arranged out of order, of the chapter in verse order is due to the insertion of the deuterocanonical portions in their logical place in the story of Esther, as narrated in the Greek version from which they're taken. They're printed in italics here in the Great Adventure Bible to enable the reader to recognize them at once. In the old Vulgate, remember the Vulgate that was translated by St. Jerome from Hebrew and Greek into Latin? In the old Vulgate, these portions were placed by Jerome immediately after the Hebrew text

of Esther, regardless of their logical position, because he himself did not regard them as canonical. Hence, they came to be numbered chapter 10, verse 4 through chapter 16, verse 24. It has been thought best to leave the chapter and verse numbering unchanged in the present edition, because that way, now it's me talking, not reading, because that way you can tell, oh, these were books that St. Jerome had, the chapters, I mean, of this book that St. Jerome had placed after chapter 10. So that's going to be an important thing. There are six extra chapters, essentially, in the book of Esther that we have in our Catholic Bibles, in Orthodox Bibles. St. Jerome, interesting, I think I might

have mentioned this story. Pope Damasus had commissioned St. Jerome to translate the Greek and Hebrew scriptures into the Latin Bible, the Vulgate, as we call it. And when St. Jerome said, you know, I don't necessarily consider these six chapters of Esther canonical, the Pope said, yes, but again, once again, the Greek version is the version that is used by the New Testament writers 80% of the time. And so if the book of Esther, the Greek version of Esther has these six chapters, we're going to include these six chapters because they're part of the Septuagint. And so if the book of Esther, the Greek version of Esther has these six chapters, we're going to include these six chapters because they're part of the Septuagint. And so they were included. And this is great to his credit, to his eternal credit, St. Jerome listened to Pope Damasus and included them. He said, here's my scholarly opinion. The Pope said, great, here's the historical

and saintly tradition of the church. And so keep them in. St. Jerome kept them in. And here we go. Here we have the Bible. And the Bible without missing a single word, if that makes any sense. So those of you who have read the book of Esther before, you might not have ever read the story of Mordecai that later on will be referenced when the king takes pity on Mordecai. It's going to happen because we have the story of how Mordecai saved the life of King

Artaxerxes. So that's, and now you know the rest of the story. What a gift. What a gift to be together with you today. One more day. I got to let you know, and a little secret. I don't, I don't often tell this to people, but I pray for you every day. So if you don't mind, if I can ask you, please pray for me. My name is Father Mike, and I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.