The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 295: Israel's Expectations (2023)

Episode Date: October 22, 2023

Fr. Mike mirrors the story of 1 Maccabees and Israel’s expectations of continued success onto our own lives, emphasizing that God’s marvelous plan exceeds our expectations and what we think should happen next in our lives. He invites us to worship and give to the Lord with freedom and generosity in response to God’s sacrificial love for us. Today’s readings are 1 Maccabees 14, Sirach 34-35, and Proverbs 23:22-25. 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 295. You know what that means? That means there are 75, 75,

70, 70 days left, something like that. I don't know. We're reading 1 Maccabees chapter 14, Sirach chapter 34 and 35, as well as Proverbs chapter 23 verses 22 through 25. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is, you guessed it, the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. You can also subscribe to this podcast and receive daily episodes and daily updates. Happens automatically, as we said yesterday. It is day 295, reading 1 Maccabees chapter 14, Sirach chapters 34 and 35, as well as Proverbs chapter 23, verses 22 through 25.

34 and 35, as well as Proverbs chapter 23, verses 22 through 25. The first book of Maccabees, chapter 14, capture of Demetrius and the eulogy of Simon. In the 172nd year, Demetrius, the king assembled his forces and marched into Medea to secure help so that he could make war against Trifo. When Asarses, the king of Persia and Medea, heard that Demetrius had invaded his territory, he sent one of his commanders to take him alive. And he went, and defeated the army of Demetrius, and seized him, and took him to Asarses, who put him under guard. The land had rest all the days of Simon. He sought the good of his nation, his rule was pleasing to them, as was the honor shown him all his days. To crown all his honors, he took Joppa for a

harbor and opened a way to the isles of the sea. He extended the borders of his nation and gained full control of the country. He gathered a host of captives, he ruled over Gazara and Bet-Zur and the citadel, and he removed its uncleanness from it, and there was none to oppose him. They tilled their land in peace, The ground gave its increase, and the trees of the plains their fruit. Old men sat in the streets. They all talked together of good things, and the youths donned the glories and garments of war. He supplied the cities with food and furnished them with the means of defense, till his renown spread to the ends of the earth. He established peace in the land, and Israel rejoiced with great joy.

Each man sat under his vine and his fig tree, and there was none to make them afraid. No one was left in the land to fight them, and the kings were crushed in those days. He strengthened all the humble of his people. He sought out the law and did away with every lawless and wicked man. He made the sanctuary glorious and added to the vessels of the sanctuary. Diplomacy with Rome and Sparta. It was heard in Rome and as far away as Sparta that Jonathan had died, and they were deeply grieved. When they heard that Simon his brother had become high priest in his place and that he was ruling over the country and the cities in it, they wrote to him on bronze tablets to renew with him the friendship and alliance which they had established with Judas and Jonathan and his

brothers. And these were read before the assembly in Jerusalem. This is a copy of the letter which the Spartans sent. The rulers and the city of the Spartans to Simon, the high priest, and to the elders and the priests and the rest of the Jewish people, our brethren, greeting. The envoys who were sent to our people have told us about your glory and honor, and we rest of the Jewish people, our brethren, greeting. The envoys who are sent to our people have told us about your glory and honor, and we rejoiced at their coming. And what they said we have recorded in our public decrees as follows. Numenius, the son of Antiochus, and Antipater, the son of Jason, envoys of the Jews, have come to us to renew their friendship with us. It has pleased our people to receive these men with honor and to put a copy of their

words in the public archives, so that the people of the Spartans may have a record of them. And they have sent a copy of this to Simon the high priest. After this, Simon sent Numenius to Rome with a large gold shield weighing a thousand minas to confirm the alliance with the Romans. Official honors for Simon. When the people heard these things, they said, How shall we thank Simon and his sons? For he and his brothers and the house of his father have stood firm. They have fought and repulsed Israel's enemies and established its freedom. So they made a record on bronze tablets and put it upon pillars on Mount Zion.

This is a copy of what they wrote. On the 18th day of Elul, in the 172nd year, which is the third year of Simon the great high priest, in Aseramel, in the great assembly of the priests and the people and the rulers of the nation and the elders of the country, the following was proclaimed to us. Since wars often occurred in the country, Simon the son of Mattathias, a priest of the sons of Jorib and his brothers, exposed themselves to danger and resisted the enemies of their nation in order that their sanctuary and the law might be preserved. And they brought great glory to their nation. Jonathan rallied the nation and became their

high priest and was gathered to his people. And when their enemies decided to invade their country and lay hands on their sanctuary, then Simon rose up and fought for his nation. He spent great sums of his own money. He armed the men of his nation's forces and paid them wages. He fortified the cities of Judea and Beth-Zer on the borders of Judea, where formerly the arms of the enemy had been stored, and he placed there a garrison of Jews. He also fortified Joppa, which is by the sea, and Gezerah, which is on the borders of Azotus, where the enemy formerly dwelt. He settled Jews there, and provided in those cities whatever was necessary for their restoration. The people saw Simon's faithfulness, and the glory which he had resolved to win for his

nation. And they made him their leader and high priest, because he had done all these things, and because of the justice and loyalty which he had maintained toward his nation. He sought in every way to exalt his people. And in his days, things prospered in his hands, so that the Gentiles were put out of the country, as were also the men in the city of David in Jerusalem, who had built themselves a citadel from which they used to sally forth and defile the environs of the sanctuary and do great damage to its purity. He settled Jews in it and fortified it for the safety of the country and of the city and built the walls of Jerusalem higher. In view of these things, King Demetrius confirmed him in the high priesthood,

and he made him one of the king's friends and paid him high honors. For he had heard that the Jews were addressed by the Romans as friends and allies and brethren, and that the Romans had received the envoys of Simon with honor. And the Jews and their priests decided that Simon should be their leader and high priest forever until a trustworthy prophet should arise, and that he should be governor over them, and that he should take charge of the sanctuary and appoint men over its tasks and over the country and the weapons and the strongholds, and that he should take charge of the sanctuary, and that he should be obeyed by all, and that all the contracts in the country should be written in his name, and that he should be clothed in purple and wear gold.

And none of the people or priests shall be permitted to nullify any of these decisions, or to oppose what he says, or to convene an assembly in the country without his permission, or to be clothed in purple, or put on a gold buckle. Whoever acts contrary to these decisions or nullifies any of them shall be liable to punishment. And all the people agreed to grant Simon the right to act in accord with these decisions. So Simon accepted and agreed to be high priest, to be commander and ethnarch of the Jews and priests, and to be protector of them all. And they gave orders to inscribe this decree upon bronze tablets, to put them up in a conspicuous place in the precincts of the sanctuary, and to deposit copies of them in the treasury, so that Simon and his sons might

have them. The Book of Sirach, Chapter 34. Fear of the Lord, Sacrifices, Justice, and Prayer A man of no understanding has vain and false hopes, and dreams give wings to fools. As one who catches at a shadow and pursues the wind, so is he who gives heed to dreams. The vision of dreams is this against that, the likeness of a face confronting a face. From an unclean thing, what will be made clean? And from something false, what will be true? Divinations and omens and dreams are folly. And like a woman with labor pains, the mind has fancies. Unless they are sent from the Most High as a visitation, do not give your mind to them. For dreams have deceived many, and those

who put their hope in them have failed. Without such deceptions, the law will be fulfilled, and wisdom is made perfect in truthful lips. An educated man knows many things, and one with much experience will speak with understanding. He that is inexperienced knows few things, but he that has traveled acquires much cleverness. I have seen many things in my travels, and I understand more than I can express. I have often been in danger of death, but have escaped because of these experiences. The spirit of those who fear the Lord will live, for their hope is in him who saves them. He who fears the Lord will not be timid, nor play the coward, for he is his hope.

Blessed is the soul of the man who fears the Lord. To whom does he look, and who is his support? The eyes of the Lord are upon those who love him, a mighty protection and strong support, a shelter from the hot wind and a shade from the noonday sun, a guard against stumbling and a defense against falling. He lifts up the soul and gives light to the eyes. He grants healing, life, and blessing. If one sacrifices from what has been wrongfully obtained, the offering is blemished.

The gifts of the lawless are not acceptable. The Most High is not pleased with the offerings of the ungodly, and he is not propitiated for sins by a multitude of sacrifices. Like one who kills a son before his father's eyes is the man who offers a sacrifice from the property of the poor. The bread of the needy is the life of the poor. Whoever deprives them of it is a man of blood. To take away a neighbor's living is to murder him. To deprive an employee of his wages is to shed blood. When one builds and another tears down, what do they gain but toil? When one prays and another curses, to whose voice will the Lord listen? If a man washes after touching a dead body and touches it again, what has he gained by his

washing? So if a man fasts for his sins and goes again and does the same things, who will listen to his prayer? And what has he gained by humbling himself? Chapter 35. The Law and Sacrifice. Divine Justice. He who keeps the law makes many offerings. He who keeps the commandments sacrifices a peace offering. He who returns a kindness offers fine flour, and he who gives alms sacrifices a thank offering. To keep from wickedness is pleasing to the Lord, and to forsake unrighteousness is atonement.

Do not appear before the Lord empty-handed, for all these things are to be done because of the commandment. The offering of a righteous man anoints the altar, and its pleasing odor rises before the Most High. The sacrifice of a righteous man is acceptable, and the memory of it will not be forgotten. Glorify the Lord generously, and do not stint the firstfruits of your hands. With every gift show a cheerful face and dedicate your tithe with gladness. Give to the Most High as He has given, and as generously as your hand has found. For the Lord is the one who repays, and He will repay you sevenfold. Do not offer Him a bribe, for He will

not accept it. And do not trust to an unrighteous sacrifice, for the Lord is the judge, and with him is no partiality. He will not show partiality in the case of a poor man, and he will listen to the prayer of one who is wronged. He will not ignore the supplication of the fatherless, nor the widow when she pours out her story. Do not the tears of the widow run down her cheek, as she cries out against him who has caused them to fall. He whose service is pleasing to the Lord will be accepted and his prayer will reach to the clouds. The prayer of the humble pierces the clouds and he will not be consoled until it reaches the Lord. He will not desist until the Most High visits him and the just judge executes judgment. And the Lord will not delay, neither will he be patient with them, till he crushes

the loins of the unmerciful and repays vengeance on the nations, till he takes away the multitude of the insolent and breaks the scepters of the unrighteous, till he repays man according to his deeds and the works of men according to their devices, till he judges the case of his people and makes them rejoice in his mercy. Mercy is as welcome when he afflicts them as clouds of rain in the time of drought. The book of Proverbs chapter 23 verses 22 through 25. Listen to your father who begot you and do not despise your mother when she is old. Buy truth and do not sell it.

Buy wisdom, understanding, and instruction. The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice. He who begets a wise son will be glad in him. Let your father and mother be glad. Let her who bore you rejoice. Father in heaven, we give you praise thank you so much once again for a new day where you reveal your word to us and help us to put it into practice to love your word to love your will and to do it with everything we have in jesus name we pray amen in the name of the father and of the son of the holy spirit amen wow so that simon pretty great guy honestly honestly. What a gift. One of my favorite lines,

I might say this too often, one of my favorite lines in scripture, and I have to say, I like it because, well, I like it because it's true and I like it because it's beautiful. And I like it because it's in the Bible and it's inspired by God himself, is chapter 14 of the book of Maccabees, verse 12. And that line is, each man sat under his vine and fig tree, and there was none to make them afraid. Why do I like it? If you are familiar with the musical Hamilton, you know why I like it. It is when George Washington was retiring, he's leaving office, and there's this song. One of the lines is, each one under their own vine and fig tree, and no one to make them afraid. Just such a gift of a line kind of thing in this, in this

musical, but it also comes from here. It comes from, you know, there's a couple of different lines that talk about this in the old Testament. This is the one that's most clear. Each man sat under his vine and his fig tree, and there was none to make them afraid. Here is Israel that had rest in many ways and rest from its enemies. Now they're going to have to obviously fight for their sovereignty. They're going to have to fight for their independence, and they're not going to be able to hold onto it for much longer than, I don't know, 100, 140 years. At the same time, there's a gift of being able to even just say, maybe this is it. Maybe this is the time when God is going to restore the kingdom that he allowed to fall into ruin because of our sinfulness. Now, here is the

hard news. The answer is no. This is not when the Lord is going to restore the kingdom of Israel. He's not going to do this now. I mean, again, think about this. Gosh, the Maccabees, right? Judas and Jonathan and Simon and all the brothers and all the other Jews who are fighting for this are fighting against the Greeks, are fighting against the Seleucids, are fighting against all these people. They now have a sovereign nation. And you can imagine they're saying, okay, now, God, this is how the next step goes. God, how the next step goes is you raise up a descendant of David and put him on the throne. That's the next thing. And then we conquer even more fully the Greeks. And even these Romans that we're in friendly agreement with, an alliance, we conquer even more fully the Greeks. And even these Romans that we're in, you know, friendly agreement with an alliance, we conquer

them. And then we keep conquering because this is your kingdom. And you promised an everlasting dominion. You promised an everlasting kingdom. You promised that we would be a worldwide blessing or that through us, this people, you would bless the entire world. This is how it goes. This is the next step.

And of course, as we know, that was not the next step. What we all know is then the Romans come in and they're not friendly anymore to Israel. And Israel doesn't get established as the world superpower that they saw themselves to be. But what happens is that from this nation that had been seemingly abandoned, but was not abandoned, that was weak and yet was still loved and preferred by God from this nation, an unlikely savior from this nation, an unlikely king. In fact, the king of kings was going to arise. But if you were one of the people living at this time, a couple hundred

years before Jesus, you would have said, oh no, no, the next step has to be that we have more and more political dominion. The next step has to be that we have more and more clout. The next step has to be that this, you know, whatever I have in my imagination. And yet we know that was not the next step. The next step was more subjugation. And in the middle of that devastation, our Lord God was going to enter himself, not rise up, raise up another Judas, not raise up another Jonathan or Elijah or David or Simon like today. He's going to raise up himself. He would become one of us. And no one saw that coming. No one saw that coming, which is just amazing. How many things in our life we say, God, this is the next step you have to take. And he can say to us, nope,

that's not actually the next step I have to take. The step I'm going to take is going to bring you more blessings than you could possibly imagine, but it is not the step you anticipate. So, gosh, Sirach, let's jump over to Sirach for just a second. Because once again, it talks about being wise. And not only being wise, but there's, there's a piece there that isn't just knowing a lot, but is knowing how to live really knowing how to live as prudence, right? That wisdom that's called prudence is, is knowing how to live. For example, chapter 34, verse nine, it says an educated man knows many things. And one with much experience will speak with understanding. He that is inexperienced knows few things, but he that has traveled acquires much cleverness. And he goes on to say, I've seen many things in my travels and I can

understand more than I can express. I've often been in danger of death, but I've escaped because of those experiences. There's a piece that like that, no, I can do this because of the fact that I now don't just have a lot of data at my fingertips. I have a lot of wisdom, the practical wisdom to know, to do what was right in the moment that it's right to do the thing. That's a very complex way to say that prudence is the ability to do the right thing at the right time and in the right way. One last note, because chapter 35 talks about worshiping God. There's something so powerful where it talks about the sacrifice of a righteous person. In chapter 35, verse seven, it says the sacrifice of a righteous man is acceptable and the memory of it

will not be forgotten glorify the lord generously and do not stint the first fruits of your hand right so that sense of like don't just don't skimp on on the gift you give the lord generously verse 9 with every gift show a cheerful face and dedicate your tithe with gladness and i love this this is because it's really important because it gives us a very clear Generously. Verse nine, with every gift, show a cheerful face and dedicate your tithe with gladness. And I love this. This is because it's really important because it gives us a very clear understanding of who God is. Give to the most high as he has given and as generously as your hand has found. So God has given us everything.

So give to the most high, give to God as generously as he's given to you. For the Lord is the one who repays and he will repay you sevenfold. So this is the goodness of God in this injunction, right? To worship the Lord and give him generously. But then, because he's going to repay. But then verse 12. And that is, gosh, so good. So you have this sense of here's God who says, yeah, please give generously.

I will give. I'll bless you. But also don't give this as a bribe. How many times we can even see that a little bit in us? Like, okay, God, I'm gonna hand you this thing or I'm gonna do this thing for you. And then you give me the thing that I'm asking for. And God says, no, no, give freely, give generously.

I will bless you, but don't give it as a bribe. Don't give it because you think you can control me by your offering. And I think that's so good because man, that's in every one of our hearts. That's the brokenness of our hearts is we, in so many ways, we think that, okay, gosh, I'm going to give you gifts. I'm going to give you my time, my life, my heart, my everything. You're going to bless me. But how many times does that slip into, I'm kind of a mercenary, kind of a mercenary heart where I give it to the highest bidder.

So God says, don't, avoid that. Be on guard against that bribery. Be on guard against the mercenary heart. So we are on guard. And so we need prayers because, man, that's our brokenness, part of our brokenness. Got a lot more where that came from. So we need prayers.

I am praying for you for that. And please pray for me for that. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.