The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 278: Power in Weakness (2022)

Episode Date: October 5, 2022

Fr. Mike walks us through the signing of the covenant in Nehemiah 10 and relates Israel’s collective decision to belong to God to our personal encounters with God that inspire us to follow him simply because he has called us. He also offers insight on how God used the physical weakness of Esther to move the king’s heart to gentleness. Today’s readings are Nehemiah 10, Esther 15, 6-7, and Proverbs 21:13-16. 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 278. We are only four short days from the end of the return heading into the Maccabean revolt. But today on day 278, we have Nehemiah chapter 10, Esther chapter 15 and six and seven

Proverbs chapter 21 verses 13 through 16. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the revised standard version. I'm using this 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 receive daily updates by subscribing. That'd be great. It's day 278. We're reading Nehemiah 10, Esther 15 and chapter six and chapter seven, as well as Proverbs chapter 21 verses 13 through 16. The book of Nehemiah, the conclusion of chapter nine, verse 38, the signing of the covenant. Because of all this, we make a firm covenant and write on it, and our princes, our Levites, and our priests set their seal to it. Chapter 10. Those who set their seal are Nehemiah the

governor, the son of Hekeliah, Zedekiah, Sariah, Azariah, Jeremiah, Pashur, Amariah, Melchizedek, These are the priests. And the Levites. These are the priests. Bani Beninu The Chiefs of the Covenant Hanan, Anan, Maluk, Harim, Ba'ana. Summary of the covenant. The rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants, and all who have separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the law of God, their wives, their sons, their daughters, all who have knowledge and understanding, join with their brethren, their nobles, and enter into a curse and an oath to walk in God's law, which was given by Moses, the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord, our Lord, and his ordinances and his statutes.

We will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land or take their daughters for our sons. And if the peoples of the land bring in wares or any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, we will not buy it from them on the Sabbath or on a holy day. And we will forego the crops of the seventh year and the exaction of every debt. We also lay upon ourselves the obligation to charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel for the service of the house of our God, for the showbread, the continual cereal offering, the continual burnt offering, the Sabbaths, the new moons,

the appointed feasts, the holy things, and the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God. We have likewise cast lots, the priests, the Levites, and the people, for the wood offering, to bring it into the house of our God, according to our Father's houses, at times appointed year by year, to burn upon the altar of the Lord our God, as it is written in the law. We obligate ourselves to bring the first fruits of our ground and the first fruits of all fruit of every tree, year by year, to the house of the Lord. Also to bring to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God, the firstborn of our sons and of our cattle, as it is written in the law, and the firstlings of our herds and of our flocks. And to bring the first of our course meal and our contributions, the fruit of every tree, the wine and the oil, to the priests,

to the chambers of the house of our God. And to bring to the Levites the tithes from our ground. For it is the Levites who collect the tithes in all our rural towns. And the priest, the son of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites receive the tithes. And the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes to the house of our God, to the chambers, to the storehouse. For the sons of Israel and the sons of Levi shall bring the contribution of grain, wine, and oil to the chambers where are the vessels of the sanctuary, and the priests that minister, and the gatekeepers, and the singers. We will not neglect the house of our God. The Book of Esther, Chapter 15. Esther's Invitation to the King and Haman

On the third day, when she ended her prayer, she took off the garments in which she had worshipped and clothed herself in splendid attire. Then majestically adorned, after invoking the aid of the all-seeing God and Saviour, she took her two maids with her, leaning daintily on one, while the other followed, carrying her train. She was radiant with perfect beauty, and she looked happy as if beloved, but her heart was frozen with fear. When she had gone through all the doors, she stood before the king. He was seated on his royal throne, clothed in the full array of his majesty, all covered with gold and precious stones, and he was most terrifying. Lifting his face,

flushed with splendor, he looked at her in fierce anger, and the queen faltered and turned pale and faint, and collapsed upon the head of the maid who went before her. Then God changed the spirit of the king to gentleness, and in alarm he sprang from his throne and took her in his arms until she came to herself, and he comforted her with soothing words and said to her, What is it, Esther? I am your brother. Take courage. You shall not die, for our law applies only to the people. Come near. Then he raised the golden scepter and touched it to her neck, and he embraced her and said, Speak to me.

And she said to him, I saw you, my Lord, like an angel of God. And my heart was shaken with fear at your glory. For you are wonderful, my Lord, and your countenance is full of grace. But as she was speaking, she fell fainting. And the king was agitated and all his servants sought to comfort her. And the king said to her, what is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given

you even to the half of my kingdom. And Esther said, If it please the king, let the king and Haman come this day to a dinner that I have prepared for the king. Then said the king, Bring Haman quickly, that we may do as Esther desires. So the king and Haman came to the dinner that Esther had prepared, and as they were drinking wine, the king said to Esther, What is your petition? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom it shall be fulfilled. But Esther said, My petition and my request is, if I have found favor in the sight of the king,

and if it please the king to grant my petition and fulfill my request, let the king and Haman come tomorrow to the dinner which I will prepare for them, and tomorrow I will do as the king has said. Haman plans to have Mordecai hanged. And Haman went out that day joyful and glad of heart. But when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate, that he neither rose nor trembled before him, he was filled with wrath against Mordecai. Nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home, and he sent and fetched his friends and his wife Zeresh. And Haman recounted to them the splendor of his riches, the number of his sons, all the promotions with which the king had honored him, and how he had advanced him above the princes and the servants of the king.

And Haman added, Even Queen Esther let no one come with the king to the banquet she prepared but myself, and tomorrow also I am invited by her together with the king. Yet all this does me no good so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate. Then his wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, Let a gallow fifty cubits high be made, and in the morning tell the king to have Mordecai hanged upon it, then go merrily with the king to the dinner. This counsel pleased Haman, and he had the gallows made. Chapter 6. The King Honors Mordecai

On that night the king could not sleep, and he gave orders to bring the book of memorable deeds, the Chronicles, and they were read before the king. And it was found written how Mordecai had told about Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's eunuchs who guarded the threshold and who had sought to lay hands upon King Ahasuerus. And the king said, what honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this? The king's servants who attended him said, nothing has been done for him. And the king said, who was in the court? Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king's palace to speak to the king about having Mordecai hanged on the gallows that he had prepared for him. So the king's servants told him, Haman is here standing

in the court. And the king said, let him come in. So Haman came in and the king said to him, what shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor. And Haman said to himself, Whom would the king delight to honor more than me? And Haman said to the king, For the man whom the king delights to honor, let royal robes be brought, which the king has worn, and the horse which the king has ridden, and on whose head a royal crown is set. And let the robes and the horse be handed over

to one of the king's most noble princes. Let him clothe the man whom the king del to Haman took the robes and the horse, and he clothed Mordecai and made him ride through the open square of the city, proclaiming, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor. Then Mordecai returned to the king's gate, but Haman hurried to his house mourning and with his head covered. And Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had befallen him. Then his wise men and his wife Zeresh said to him, If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of the Jewish people,

you will not prevail against him, but will surely fall before him. Haman's Downfall and Mordecai's Advancement While they were yet talking with him, the king's eunuchs arrived and brought Haman in downfall and Mordecai's advancement. While they were yet talking with him, the king's eunuchs arrived and brought Haman in haste to the banquet that Esther had prepared. Chapter seven. So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. And on the second day, as they were drinking wine,

the king again said to Esther, what is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled. Then Queen Esther answered, If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition and my people at my request. For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold

merely as slaves, men and women, I would have held my peace, for our affliction is not to be compared with the loss to the king. Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, Who is he, and where is he, that he would presume to do this? And Esther said, A foe and enemy, this wicked Haman. Then Haman was in terror before the king and the queen, and the king rose from the feast in wrath and went into the palace garden. But Haman stayed to beg his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that evil was determined against him by the king. And the king returned from the palace garden to the place where they were drinking wine as Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was, and the king said, Will he even assault the queen in my presence in my own house? As the words left the mouth of the king, they covered Haman's face. Then said Harbonah,

one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, Moreover, the gallows which Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, is standing in Haman's house fifty cubits high. And the king said, Hang him on that. So they hanged Haman on the gallows which he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the anger of the king abated. The book of Proverbs chapter 21 verses 13 through 16. He who closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself cry out and not be heard. A gift in secret averts anger and a bribe in the bosom strong wrath. When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous, but dismay to evildoers. A man who wanders from the way of understanding will rest in the assembly of the

dead. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. Thank you so much. Father, just we ask you please, in the name of your son, Jesus Christ, this day, receive our thanks, receive our praise, receive the glory and honor that is yours. Thank you for bringing us once again to a new day. And thank you for your word. Thank you for speaking to us. And thank you for calling us to renew our relationship with you, to renew the covenant that you've established in the blood of your son, Jesus Christ. In his name, we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So, you know, the book of Nehemiah, we're trucking right along. And yesterday we had this great prayer in chapter nine of Ezra. Ezra was praying, recounting the story.

Here's all the goodness you've done, Lord. Here's our sins. But we renew this, our desire to repent and turn back to you. And then at the end of chapter nine, it says, because of all this, we make a firm covenant and write it. Our princes, our Levites and our priests put their, set their seal to it. And then chapter 10, of course, is the names of all the people who signed this and the most incredible, well, I don't know, it's the most incredible thing, but something that's really, really powerful and really

beautiful. Remember in the divided kingdom, there was so much idolatry. There was so much, you know, falseness when it came to how quick the people of Israel who had been brought into covenant with the Lord God, how quick they were to turn their back on God. And it was kind of like one of those things where we've inherited this, but you know, we might as well just turn to the local gods. We might as well just turn to the gods of our neighbors. We might as well just live like everyone else. And yet here in chapter 10, as they're signing this covenant, there is this, this collective decision of like, no, we're going to, we're going to be faithful to this, that we're, we're going to live up to this, that, that we're choosing not idolatry.

We are choosing not other foreign gods. We are choosing to belong to the Lord, our God. Not only that, but we're taking upon, you know, every real relationship. We might've said this before. Every real relationship has real rights. Here we are God's people, but also real responsibilities. Every real relationship has real rights and also real responsibilities. And the people of Israel here in chapter 10, they're taking upon themselves the real responsibilities that here's how we go. We're going to have to live. Here's how we're going to bring our sacrifices to the temple.

Here's how we're going to bring the tithes, our firstborn, our first fruits, like all of these pieces, they're taking it, they're voluntarily taking upon themselves. It's almost like one of those situations where maybe if you were raised in the church, maybe you were raised in the faith, and at some point you just walked away, right? You just drifted away. It didn't mean anything to you. It was your parents' faith. It was your grandparents' faith.

But then maybe if you were brought back, right? You just drifted away. It didn't mean anything to you. It was your parents' faith. It was your grandparents' faith. But then maybe if you were brought back, all of the things that your grandparents told you to do, all the things your parents might've told you to do, all of a sudden, that's what you wanted to do. It was the sense of, okay, however God is asking me to live, that's how I'm going to live because you actually encountered God for yourself. And there's something about a revival, something of a conversion that's happening here. I mean, it started way back when Ezra the scribe stood up actually encountered God for yourself. And there's something about a revival, something of a conversion that's happening here. I mean, it started way back when Ezra the scribe stood up and began to read the words of the book of the law. That began this revival where people are saying, okay,

how has God called us to live? Let's live that way. Who is God? He's good. He's gracious. He's loving. He's merciful. And we belong to him? Well, let's live like we belong to him. And it's just, this is a turning point. This is a real turning point in the life of the people of Israel, which is incredible. You know, as I said, we only have, after today, only three days left in Nehemiah and Esther. We have the prophet Malachi,

and then we're at the end of the return. And then we begin with some incredible books. We're gonna be first and second Maccabees, which I know many of you have never read. We're also reading Sirach, which many of you never readabees, which I know many of you have never read. We're also reading Sirach, which many of you never read and wisdom, which many of you have never read, but these books are phenomenal. You're going to love them. But before that we have still have the book of Esther. Here's Esther. I love the fact that in chapter 15, which is again, part of the Deuterocanonical passage. It's a later expansion of the Hebrew text, chapter five, verses one and two. It talks about how Esther was terrified. And also it describes

how as Esther comes into the palace of the king and the presence of the king, it says he was most terrifying, lifting his face, flushed with splendor. He looked at her in fierce anger. That his initial response wasn't, oh, hey, there's my beautiful queen that I haven't seen in 30 days. His initial response was fierce anger. And in fact, it wasn't even Esther's elegance, her grace, her beauty, her strength, her courage. Now her courage and her faith in the Lord is what brought her to this place. But in that moment, what's it say? And the queen faltered and turned pale and faint and collapsed. And this is verse eight.

Then God changed the spirit of the king to gentleness. And in alarm, he sprang from his throne and took her in his arms until she came to herself. There's something about this that just like you've seen this before. Maybe you've done this before where you saw a person or a situation or something going on. And your response was negative. Your response was maybe like, like, I swear it was this looked at her with fierce anger. And then you see the weakness of the person and the weakness does something to your heart that melts the anger that douses the anger melts the hardness of your heart. And you realize, wait a second, I need to help this person. Now, again, it wasn't Queen Esther's beauty that originally got his attention. It wasn't,

wasn't her grace. Although she was filled with beauty, filled with grace. Um, it was her weakness. Again, she's filled with courage. She's filled with faith, but what he saw was weakness. And again, this, this broken man, like significantly broken man, Ahasuerus, he wouldn't have been moved by grace. He wouldn't have been moved by, by beauty. He wouldn't have been moved by beauty. He wouldn't have been moved by how gorgeous Queen Esther was because, I mean, gosh, the guy's got a thousand, thousand harems, you know, we didn't have a real number, but you know, that's not something that would pull on his heart. But the Lord knew what would pull on his heart. And he allowed Esther to be weak and to falter and to faint in his presence, knowing that would change King Ahasuerus' heart. Isn't that interesting?

Just, again, so often we think, no, I have got to be the best. I've got to be perfect. I've got to be good. I've got to be holy. I've got to be perfect. I said perfect twice, but here's how imperfect I am. I've got to be perfect. I've got to be strong.

I've got to have the exact right words. I've got to do the exact right thing. And we forget sometimes that God not only works in our weakness, he wants to work in our weakness. And there's something so powerful about God wanting to work with our weakness that we just need to be reminded of today. Because it was not, again, the strength and the grace and the beauty of Queen Esther that melted King Ahasuerus' heart. She was, again, keep this in mind, she was courageous. She was full of faith, filled with beauty, full of grace. But is the fact that God wants to work with our weakness

that he was able to work a miracle in the king's heart. This evil king's heart was moved by weakness, which doesn't make any sense, but that's how we are. And it gives us solace, right? It gives us encouragement to know that God wants to work with our weakness. So in our weakness, we pray. In our strength, we pray. In our faith, we pray. And courageously, we pray today. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.