The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2023)

Episode Date: January 29, 2023

Fr. Mike delves deeper into Moses' call to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, and reminds us that God desires to make us free so we that we can worship him. Today's readings are Exodus 4-5, Leviticus 4, and Psalm 46. 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. This is day 29, and we are reading from Exodus chapter 4 and chapter 5, from Leviticus chapter 4, and from Psalm 46. As always, I'm reading from the Revised Standard Version, the Catholic edition, specifically the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. And if you want to follow along,

not only with your ears, but also with your eyes, you can download your Bible in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. Really simple. Just type in your email, I believe, and it will give you access to that Bible in a Year reading plan. And be sure also to subscribe to this podcast in whatever app you are using to listen to the Word of God. So good.

What a great gift to be able to be together and to listen, to journey with the people of God, with the holy people of Israel, with God's chosen people as covenantal people ourselves, as people who have been brought into the covenant, to be able to see the many ways in which God has heard the cries of his people and has come to meet them. Because we also raise up our cries to the Lord asking that he meets us today. I go once again, reading from Exodus chapter four and five from Leviticus chapter four and from Psalm verse 46. Exodus chapter four and chapter five. Then Moses answered, but behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, The Lord did not appear to you. The Lord said to him, What is that in your hand? He said, A rod.

And he said, Cast it on the ground. So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses fled from it. But the Lord said to Moses, Put out your hand and take it by the tail. So he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand, that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has appeared to you. Again, the Lord said to him, Put your hand into your bosom. And he put his hand into the bosom. But when he took it out, behold, his hand

was leprous, as white as snow. Then God said, put your hand back into your bosom. So he put his hand back into his bosom. And when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. If they will not believe you, God said, or heed the first sign, they may believe the latter sign. If they will not believe even these two signs or heed your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water which you take from the Nile will become blood upon the dry ground. But Moses said to the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, either heretofore or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue. Then the Lord said to him, who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute or deaf or seeing or

blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak. But he said, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you what you shall do. He shall speak for you to the people and he shall be a mouth for you and you shall be to him as God. And you shall take in your hand this rod with which you shall do the signs. Moses went back to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him, Let me go back, I beg, to my kinsmen in Egypt and see whether they are still alive. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace. And the Lord said to Moses and Midian, Go back to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking your life are dead. So Moses took his wife and his sons and

set them on a donkey and went back to the land of Egypt. And in his hand Moses took the rod of God. And the Lord said to Moses, When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles which I have put in your power, but I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go. And you shall say to Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son. And I say to you, let my son go, that he may serve me. If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay your firstborn son. At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met him and sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses' feet with it and said, surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me. So he let him alone. Then it was

that she said, You are a bridegroom of blood because of the circumcision. The Lord said to Aaron, Go into the wilderness to meet Moses. So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him. And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord which he had been sent to him and all the signs which he had charged him to do. Then Moses and Aaron went, and gathered together all the elders of the sons of Israel. And Aaron spoke all the words which the Lord had spoken to Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed. And when they heard that the Lord had visited the sons of Israel, and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshipped. Afterward, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel,

Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness. But Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, that I should heed his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go. Then they said, The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Let us go, we beg, a three days journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword. But the king of Egypt said to them, Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get to your burdens.

And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land are now many, and you make them rest from their burdens? The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen, You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as heretofore. Let them go and gather straw for themselves. But the number of bricks which they have made heretofore, let them go and gather straw for themselves. But the number of bricks which they have made heretofore, you shall lay upon them. You shall by no means lessen it, for they are idle. Therefore they cry, let us go and offer sacrifice to our God. Let heavier work be laid upon the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words. So the taskmasters and the foreman of the people went out and said to the people, Thus says Pharaoh, I will not give you straw. Go yourselves, get your straw wherever you can find

it, but your work will not be lessened in the least. So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. The taskmasters were urgent, saying, Complete your work, your daily task, as when there was straw. And the foremen of the sons of Israel, whom Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, were beaten and were asked, Why have you not done all your task of making bricks today as before? Then the foremen of the sons of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, Why do you deal thus with your servants? No straw is given to your servants, yet they say to us, Make bricks. And behold, your servants are beaten, but the fault is with your own people. But he said, You are idle. You are idle, therefore you say, Let us go and sacrifice

to the Lord. Go now and work, for no straw shall be given you, yet you shall deliver the same number of bricks. The foremen of the sons of Israel saw that they were in an evil plight when they said, You shall by no means lessen your daily number of bricks. They met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them, as they came forth from Pharaoh. And they said to them, The Lord look upon you and judge, because you have made us offensive in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us. Then Moses turned again to the Lord and said, O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all. Leviticus chapter 4. Sin Offerings.

And the Lord said to Moses, Say to the sons of Israel, If anyone sins unwittingly in any of the things which the Lord has commanded not to be done, and does any one of them, if it is the anointed priest who sins, thus bringing guilt on the people, then let him offer for the sin which he has committed a young bull without blemish to the Lord for a sin offering. He shall bring the bull to the door of the tent of meeting before the Lord, and lay his hand on the head of the bull, and kill the bull before the Lord. And the anointed priest shall take some of the blood of the bull, and bring it to the tent of meeting, and the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and take some of the blood of the bull and bring it to the tent of meeting. And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle part of the blood seven

times before the Lord in front of the veil of the sanctuary. And the priest shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of the fragrant incense before the Lord, which is in the tent of meeting. And the rest of the blood of the bull he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering, which is at the door of the tent of meeting. And all the fat of the bull of the sin offering, he shall take from it, the fat that covers the entrails, and all the fat that is on the entrails, and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins, and the appendage of the liver, which he shall take away with the kidneys, just as these are taken from the ox of the sacrifice of the peace offerings. And the priest shall burn them upon the altar of burnt offering.

But the skin of the bull and all its flesh with its head, its legs, its entrails, and its dung, the whole bull, he shall carry forth outside the camp to a clean place where the ashes are poured out and shall burn it on a fire of wood where the ashes are poured out. It shall be burned. If the whole congregation of Israel commits a sin unwittingly, and the thing is hidden from the eyes of the assembly, and they do any of the things which the Lord has commanded not to be done and are guilty, when the sin which they have committed becomes known, the assembly shall offer a young bull for a sin offering,

and bring it before the tent of meeting. And the elders of the congregation shall lay their hands on the head of the bull before the Lord, and the bull shall be killed before the Lord. Then the anointed priest shall bring some of the blood of the bull to the tent of meeting. And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle it seven times before the Lord in front of the veil. And he shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar which is in the tent of meeting before the Lord, and the rest of the blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering, which is at the door of the tent of meeting. In all its fat he shall take from it, and burn upon the altar. Thus shall he do with the bull, as he did with the bull of the sin offering. So shall he do with this, and the priests shall make atonement for

them, and they shall be forgiven. And he shall carry forth the bull outside the camp and burn it as he burned the first bull. It is the sin offering for the assembly. When a ruler sins, doing unwittingly any one of all the things which the Lord his God has commanded not to be done and is guilty, if the sin which he has committed is made known to him, he shall bring as his offering a goat, a male without blemish, and shall lay his hand upon the head of the goat and kill it in the place where they killed the burnt offering before the Lord. It is a sin offering. Then the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out the rest of its

blood at the base of the altar of burnt offering. In all its fat he shall burn on the altar, like the fat of the sacrifice of peace offerings. So the priest shall make atonement for him for his sin, and he shall be forgiven. If any one of the common people sins unwittingly in doing any one of the things which the Lord has commanded not to be done and is guilty, when the sin which he has committed is made known to him, he shall bring for his offering a goat, a female without blemish, for his sin which he has committed. And he shall lay

his hand on the head of the sin offering, and kill the sin offering in the place of burnt offering. And the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger, and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and pour out the rest of its blood at the base of the altar. And all its fat he shall remove, as the fat is removed from the peace offerings. And the priest shall burn it upon the altar for a pleasing odor to the Lord, and the priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be forgiven.

If he brings a lamb as his offering for a sin offering, he shall bring a female without blemish, and lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering, and kill it for a sin offering in place where they kill the burnt offering. Then the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger, and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and pour out the rest of its blood at the base of the altar. And all its fat he shall remove, as the fat of the lamb is removed from the sacrifice of peace offerings. And the priest shall burn it on the altar upon the offerings by fire to the Lord. And the priest shall make atonement for him

for the sin which he has committed, and he shall be forgiven. Psalm 46, God's defense of his city and people. To the choir master, a psalm of the sons of Korah, according to Alamoth, a song. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter. He utters his voice, The earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of

Jacob is our refuge. Come, behold the works of the Lord, how he has wrought desolations in the earth. He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots with fire. Be still and know that I am God. I am exalted among the nations. I am exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge.

Lord God in heaven, we give you praise. We thank you so much. We give you praise and glory for who you are. You are the one God. Living and true, you are the one who has come and visited your people. You are with us right now. God, you are in our midst. You are in our midst.

And so what you invite us to do is to be still and to know. To be still and to know that you are in our midst, to be still and know you, to be still and know that you are our God. So help us, help us to stay in the midst of our busyness, to be still in the midst of our tumult, in the midst of our slavery, in the midst of our redemption, in the midst of our being set free, our liberation, in the midst of our vocation, help us to take this time to be still and to know that you are God. We make this prayer in Jesus's mighty name, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Wow, what a gift, what a gift to be able to be together once again and to hear like, gosh, this reality of here's God calling Moses.

He revealed his name, the sacred name of God to Moses, right? And so whenever we see in the scriptures, wherever it says the Lord, particularly the Lord God, or especially when a lot of times the font changes. So it's a capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. That is a reverent way to indicate that originally the word wasn't simply Lord, which is Adonai, uh, the word Elohim, you know, um, the word was originally the sacred name of God. I am who I am, which is also known in fancy terms, the Tetragrammaton, which is the Y H W H.

What did we typically refer to as the holy name of God or Yahweh? Whenever we see that capitalized L-O-R-D, that is the Lord God being referred to by his proper name, the name that he had revealed to Moses before this. Now here is the personal God. And then why is that so important? A quick question, why is that so important? One of the reasons it's so important is because in the ancient world, they had a deeper appreciation for proper names. We've kind of lost that a little bit where you can reveal your name to anybody because we like, oh, that's who I am. That's my name. But in the ancient world, to know someone's name was understood as being in a relationship with them. It was understood as now there's a certain

vulnerability in knowing another person's name and their name being revealed to you. And here is God who is distant, God who is omnipotent, God who's omnipresent, all these things, who's making himself intimate. He's making himself personal. I mean, he's always been personal, but he's revealing himself in a personal way. And he says, this is my name. When you call upon my name, you're calling upon me as a personal God. And so this personal God now is called this person, Moses, to go to Pharaoh. And it's interesting to see how here's Moses who has seen a miracle. He's seen a couple different miracles and he's still unconvinced of the fact that the Lord God will be with him, that this personal God will be enough. And so he says, he defers and says, well, let my brother Aaron speak

instead because he can speak well and I don't speak well, even though God has just given him two miracles, right? The miracle of the rod turning into a serpent where I love the fact that Moses sees this rod become a serpent and runs away. Cause I'm like, yep, that's what I would do too. But then, you know, grabs it by his tail, becomes a rod again. And the same thing with his hand, putting it into his bosom and it becoming leprous and then putting it there again

and having it become clean, that there is this reality that God is saying, listen, Moses, you don't actually know me yet. I revealed my name to you, but you don't know the depth to which you can trust me. And that's why he keeps saying, I am the God of your fathers. Again, I'm largely unknown to you. And this is what would have been the case, that the Lord God would be largely unknown to Moses. I mean, the family of Israel has been living in slavery. They've held on to the stories of the Lord God revealing himself to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

But you can imagine the degree to which he would still be largely unknown to them. And so when God does call Moses and to do this dangerous thing, you can understand how Moses would be hesitant. Not only that, he has reason to be hesitant, right? You have Pharaoh who could destroy his life with a snap of his fingers, but you also have the people of Israel. And this is one of the more difficult moments of, well, it's a lot of difficult. And amongst a lot of difficult moments, here's a very difficult moment for the people of Israel. And this is one of the more difficult moments of, well, it's a lot of, and amongst a lot of difficult moments, here's a very difficult moment for the people of Israel. When Moses and Aaron come along and they say, the Lord God wants to set you free. And Pharaoh says, oh, really?

You want to go and worship me? That's, and also keep this in mind. We've mentioned it before, but it's really important to note. It's why do we want to be set free to go and serve the Lord? That word to serve is actually the word to worship. So keep that in mind. Always keep that in mind. The goal of freedom is not just simply freedom for freedom's sake, not just simply freedom from, but freedom for. And freedom for what? Freedom for worship, to be able to worship the Lord God. And so Pharaoh says, oh, really, you have all this time you want to take off and worship? If you have that much time that you want to devote to other things other than work, then I'll give you more work. And it's interesting to note this.

One is the fact that that would be the anger of the people of Israel towards Moses and Aaron saying, you just interrupted our lives. It's so interesting because you're like, wait, I've interrupted what kind of life? I've made it more difficult for you to be a slave. You'd rather just be left alone as a slave as opposed to having your life more difficult because I'm actually trying to set you free. There's something that this weird paradox, this weird tension here in this moment. But also there's something really remarkable that we can apply to our lives. And that is this.

That is, here's Pharaoh who says, oh, really? You have time to worship? Well, I'm going to give you more work. So you don't have time to think about worship. You don't have time to think about your God. Many of us, we are Pharaohs to ourselves, meaning we make ourselves so busy that we don't have time to think about God. We make ourselves so busy. We do it to ourselves. We have made ourselves into slaves by saying, I have to do this. I have to do that. All these other things. I've set up a pace of life for myself that is unmanageable. If I even take a break, I've set up a pace for my life that necessitates, demands that I cannot stop going. And so we don't have time in our lives for worship, and we're no more than slaves, but we have made ourselves into slaves, so many of us, and one of the things that the Lord God

reveals today is that his people are never meant to be slaves, not a slave to Pharaoh, and definitely not a slave to the Pharaoh that lives inside of us, but we're meant to be free so that we can truly belong to him, so that we can meant to be free so that we can truly belong to him, so that we can truly be his, so that we can truly worship. So keep this in mind. As we move forward into this day, let's worship.

Let's find a time in our lives to worship, to not be a slave master to yourself, but to allow ourselves to have that freedom to be able to stop, to seek the Lord's voice, to be still and know that he is God and to pray for each other. I'm praying for you as we go on this journey. So please pray for me. Let's pray for each other. We cannot do it alone. My name is Father Mike. And if you're interested in getting more information,

updates about this, what we're doing, this Bible in a year, you can just text the word Catholic Bible to 33777. But I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.