The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 33: Locusts, Darkness, and Death of the Firstborn (2025)

Episode Date: February 2, 2025

In today's reading from Exodus 10-11, Fr. Mike explains how the ten plagues reveal that God is far greater than the Egyptian gods. We also discover more about how God wants to be worshipped through Leviticus 8 and Psalm 50. 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 33. Let's keep on moving right along. Day 33 we're reading from Exodus chapter 10 and chapter 11 as well as Leviticus

chapter 8 and we're praying through Psalm 50. As always I'm reading from the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to be able to follow along you can download your own Bible in a year reading plan by visiting Ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year if you have not yet subscribed go ahead and click that smash that subscribe Button in your podcast app you get daily updates at the crack of midnight or whenever we send those out Once again today we're reading from Exodus chapter 10 and 11 Leviticus chapter 8 and Psalm 50 Exodus chapter 10 and 11, Leviticus chapter 8, and Psalm 50. Exodus chapter 10. The eighth plague. Locusts. Then the Lord said to Moses, go into Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his servants,

that I may show these signs of mine among them, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your son's son how I made sport of the Egyptians and what signs I Have done among them that you may know that I am the Lord So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and said to him thus says the Lord the God of the Hebrews How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go that they may serve me for if you refuse to let my people go behold tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country, and they shall cover the face of the land, so that no one can see the land.

And they shall eat what is left to you after the hail, and they shall eat every tree of yours which grows in the field, and they shall fill your houses, and the houses of all your servants, and of all the Egyptians, as neither your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen, from the day they came on earth to this day." Then he turned and went out from Pharaoh. And Pharaoh's servants said to him, How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not yet understand that Egypt is ruined?

So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh, and he said to them, Go, serve the Lord your God. But who are to go? And Moses said, We will go with our young and our old, we will go with our sons and daughters and with our flocks and herds, for we must hold a feast to the Lord. And he said to them, The Lord be with you, if I ever let you and your little ones go, look, you have some evil purpose in mind No, go the men among you and serve the Lord for that is what you desire and they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence

Then the Lord said to Moses Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts that they may come upon the land of Egypt and eat every plant in the land all that the hail has left upon the land of Egypt, and eat every plant in the land, all that the hail has left." So Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that day and all that night. And when it was morning, the east wind had brought the locusts. And the locusts came up over all the land of Egypt, and settled on the whole country of Egypt, such a dense swarm of locusts, as had never been seen before, nor ever shall be again. For they covered the face of the whole land, so that the land was darkened,

and they ate all the plants in the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left, not a green thing remained, neither tree nor plant of the field, through all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron in haste and said, I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you. Now therefore forgive my sin, I beg you, only this once, and entreat the Lord your God only to remove this death from me. So he went out from Pharaoh and entreated the Lord. And the Lord turned a very strong west wind which lifted the locusts and drove them into the Red Sea. Not a single locust was left in all the country of Egypt. But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the children of Israel go. The Ninth Plague. Darkness.

Then the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt. So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt." So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. They did not see one another, nor did any rise from his place for three days. But all the sons of Israel had light where they dwelt. Then Pharaoh called Moses, and said, Go, serve the Lord, your children also may go with you, only let your flocks and your herds remain behind.

But Moses said, You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. Our cattle also must go with us, not a hoof shall be left behind, for we must take of them to serve the Lord our God, and we do not know with what we must serve the Lord until we arrive there. But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and he would not let them go. Then Pharaoh said to him, Get away from me, take heed to yourself, never see my face again, for in the day you see my face you shall die.

Moses said, As you say, I will not see your face again. Chapter 11. Warning of the final plague. The Lord said to Moses, Get one plague more I will bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterwards, he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will drive you away completely. Speak now in the hearing of the people that they ask every man of his neighbor and every woman of her neighbor jewelry of silver and of gold.

And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants and in the sight of the people. And Moses said, Thus says the Lord, About midnight I will go forth in the midst of Egypt, and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits upon his throne, even to the firstborn of the maid-servant who is behind the mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle. And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there never

has been, nor ever shall be again. But against any of the sons of Israel, either man or beast, not a dog shall growl, that you may know that the Lord makes a distinction between the Egyptians and Israel. And all these your servants shall come down to me and bow down to me, saying, Get you out and all the people who follow you. And after that I will go out." And he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger. Then the Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh will not listen to you, that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.

Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh and the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and he did not let the sons of Israel go out of his land. The Book of Leviticus Chapter 8. The Rights of Ordination. The Lord said to Moses, Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, and the anointing oil, and the bowl of the sin offering, and the two rams, and the basket of unleavened bread, and assemble all the congregation at the door of the tent of meeting. And Moses did as the Lord commanded him, and the congregation was assembled at the door of the tent

of meeting. And Moses said to the congregation, This is the thing which the Lord has commanded to be done. And Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and them with water and he put on them the coat and girded him with the sash and clothed him with the robe and put the ephod upon him and girded him with the skillfully woven band of the ephod binding it to him therewith and he placed the breast piece on him and in the breast piece he put the Urim and the Thumim and he set the turban upon his head and on the turban in front he set the golden plate the holy head, and on the turban in front he set the golden plate, the holy crown, as the Lord commanded Moses. Then Moses took the anointing oil, and anointed the tabernacle, and all that was in it, and consecrated them. And he sprinkled

some of it on the altar seven times, and anointed the altar, and all its utensils, and the laver, and its base, to consecrate them. And he poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron's head and anointed him to consecrate him. And Moses brought Aaron's sons and clothed them with coats and girded them with sashes and bound caps on them as the Lord commanded Moses. Then he brought the bowl of the sin offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the bowl of the sin offering. And Moses killed it and took the blood, and with his finger put it on the head of the bull of the sin offering and Moses killed it and took the blood and

with his finger put it on the horns of the altar round about and purified the altar and poured out the blood at the base of the altar and consecrated it to make atonement for it. He took all the fat that was on the entrails and the appendage of the liver and the two kidneys with their fat and Moses burned them on the altar. But the bull and its skin and its flesh and its dung he burned with fire outside the camp as the Lord commanded Moses. Then he presented the ram of the burnt offering and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram and Moses killed it and threw the blood upon the altar roundabout. And when the ram was cut into

pieces, Moses burned the head and the pieces and the fat. And when the entrails and the legs were washed with water, Moses burned the whole ram on the altar as a burnt offering, a pleasing odor, an offering by fire to the Lord, as the Lord commanded Moses. Then he presented the other ram, the ram of ordination, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram. And Moses killed it, and took some of its blood, and put it on the tip of Aaron's right ear, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the great toe of his right foot. And Aaron's sons were brought, and Moses put some of the blood on the tips of their right ears, and on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the great toes of their right

feet. And Moses threw the blood upon the altar round about. Then he took the fat, and the fat tail, and all the fat that was on the entrails, and the appendage of the liver, and the two kidneys with their fat, and the right thigh. And out of the basket of unleavened bread, which was before the Lord, he took one unleavened cake, and one cake of bread with oil, and one wafer, and placed them on the fat, and on the right thigh. And he put all these in the hands of Aaron and in the hands of his sons,

and waved them as a wave offering before the Lord. Then Moses took them from their hands and burned them on the altar with the burnt offering as an ordination offering, a pleasing order, an offering by fire to the Lord. And Moses took the breast and waved it for a wave offering before the Lord. It was Moses's portion of the ram ordination as the Lord commanded Moses. Then Moses took some of the anointing oil and of the blood which was on the altar and sprinkled it upon Aaron and his garments and also upon his sons and his sons garments. So he consecrated Aaron and his garments and his sons and his sons garments with him. And Moses said to Aaron and his garments, and his sons, and his sons' garments with

him. And Moses said to Aaron, and his sons, Boil the flesh at the door of the tent of meeting, and there eat it, and the bread that is in the basket of ordination offerings, as I commanded, saying, Aaron and his sons shall eat it. And what remains of the flesh and the bread you shall burn with fire. And you shall not go out from the door of the Tent of Meeting for seven days, until the days of your ordination are completed, for it will take seven days to ordain you. As has been done today, the Lord has commanded to be done to make atonement for you.

At the door of the Tent of Meeting you shall remain day and night for seven days, performing what the Lord has charged, lest you die, for so I am commanded. And Aaron and his sons did all the things which the Lord commanded by Moses. Psalm 50. The Acceptable Sacrifice. A Psalm of Asaph. The Mighty One, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth. Our God comes.

He does not keep silence. Before Him is a devouring fire round about Him a mighty tempest. He calls to the heavens above and to the earth that he may judge his people. Gather to me my faithful ones who made a covenant with me by sacrifice. The heavens declare his righteousness for God himself is the judge. Hear, O my people, and I will speak. O Israel, I will testify against you. I am God, your God. I do not reprove you for your sacrifices, your burnt offerings are continually before me. I will accept no bull from your house, nor he goat from your folds. For every beast of the forest is mine. The

cattle on a thousand hills, I know all the birds of the air and all that moves in the field is mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you. For the world and all that moves in the field is mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and all that is in it is mine. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving and pay your vows to the Most High and call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver you and you shall glorify me.

But to the wicked, God says, trouble, I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me. But to the wicked God says, What right have you to recite my statutes, or take my covenant on your lips? For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you. If you see a thief, you are a friend of his, and you keep company with adulterers. You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother and slander your own mother's son. These things you have done, and I have been silent.

You thought that I was one like yourself, but now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you. Mark this then, you who forget God, lest I tear and there be none to deliver. He who brings thanksgiving as his sacrifice honors me. To him who orders his way aright, I will show the salvation of God. Father in heaven, we thank you, we give you praise and glory. You reveal that not only do you love us, but you continually reveal your heart to us.

You continually fight for us. Again, this is this theme, Father, that you continually show to our hearts is that we are made for you and you alone, and yet our hearts continually make idols, and we can make idols out of anything around us, and yet, Lord God, you free us from idols, and you free us for true worship.

Help our hearts be free, truly free, that we do not turn to idols, that we do not turn to false worship, but that we have hearts that have the kind of interior freedom where we can offer you the worship that you ask for. but that we have hearts that have the kind of interior freedom where we can offer you the worship that you ask for. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ our Lord Amen in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit

Amen. Okay so there is so much to say about these chapters I want to speak two quick notes, two quick notes on Exodus chapters 10 and 11 and one quick note on Leviticus chapter eight. So one of the things that I apologize, but I don't know if we made it absolutely clear that what is up with all of the 10 plagues? Like what is going on?

Sometimes we just think there are these random things. Okay, there's frogs now, the Nile turns to blood here, there's locusts today, we have, the sky goes dark for three days. What is that? Is this just God saying, hey, I'm very powerful? It is, it is. He says that the people may know me,

but it's also what God is doing, the Lord God is doing, is he is demonstrating that he is the Lord God above the false gods of the Egyptians, that every one of the ten plagues is Associated with one of the ten false gods of Egypt So as an example when the river turns to blood the Nile turns to blood there was a god called hoppy Hapi was the Egyptian god of the Nile and so here is the Lord God who shows his dominance over this false God hoppy We have the plague of frogs

and there is the Egyptian god Hecate or Hecht, the Egyptian goddess of fertility and water and renewal. She's often depicted as a frog. Then there's the Egyptian plague of Lys from the dust of the earth. Well, there was the god Geb, the Egyptian god of the earth, right? So all of these things are connected. For example, the swarm of flies was Kipri, the Egyptian god of the earth, right? So all of these things are connected.

For example, the swarm of flies was Kipri, the Egyptian god of creation, movement of the sun and rebirth. And it's connected to, flies are connected to death instead of this rebirth. We even have, uh, the, I think the, maybe the most famous Egyptian god that we all know of probably, I don't know why, maybe because of movies and stuff like this. I'll know of probably, I don't know why, maybe because of movies and stuff like this. Ra, the sun god, and what do we have? That second to last plague of darkness of the sun. And we have the Lord God demonstrating his power over light, over the sun.

And so what this really is is not merely the Lord God saying like, no, I'm real and I'm powerful and I'm gonna inflict punishment on The people for not freeing my people from slavery but also He's demonstrating his dominance over these false gods and he's also getting into the hearts of his people the people of Israel because what? Has happened that Egypt has gotten into their hearts. They've been slaves for 400 years They've been subsumed in so many ways. Yes, they kept their own culture in some some ways, but

you have to probably acknowledge or just even assume that at some point some of these Egyptian gods made it into their hearts. In fact, we don't need to have to assume. We know it happens because what's gonna happen is as soon as Moses turns his back at Mount Sinai, goes up Mount Sinai the people are gonna make a false god for themselves And they're gonna worship the golden calf at the base of Mount Sinai So a couple quick things to note is that this is God who is he's releasing the people from that possession of those false gods That have invaded the people of Israel's heart

The second thing is this and I think it's just so remarkable um Pharaoh says okay get out of my sight with Israel's heart. The second thing is this, and I think it's just so remarkable. Pharaoh says, okay, get out of my sight. Take your men and your children. And Moses responds by saying, you must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. So our cattle also must go with us. And this is in chapter 10.

Not a hoof shall be left behind, for we must take care of them to serve the Lord. And we do not know with what we must serve the Lord until we arrive there remember that term to serve means to worship and So here is Moses who's saying we don't know how God wants us to worship him We don't know what he will want us to offer him. And so we are not gonna offer him false worship We're not gonna offer him the worship that we desire We have to take everything because we are gonna offer the Lord God the worship that he desires

And I remember when I was you know kid and I read this and here's Moses saying to Pharaoh No, no, we need to take all of our cattle and all of our everything And I just thought that's Moses being sneaky. This is like Moses you sly fox, you know that kind of a thing But Pope Benedict he noted this he said, Moses is telling the truth to Pharaoh. The whole point of being released from slavery was to go worship God. And Moses is making it very clear that we don't know how he wants to be worshiped. So we're not going to just get our freedom and then give him whatever we want.

We will receive freedom from his hand so that we can worship him how he wants. And this is so, so critically important when it comes to our lives, when it comes to the worship that we offer to the Lord God is when we approach him, we say, God, how do you want us to worship you? And as we know at the Last Supper, Jesus, the Word made flesh, the only son of the Father, the eternal God, He has said, do this all of you in memory of me, right? Take this, eat of it, this is my body.

Take this all of you and drink of it, this is the blood of the new and eternal covenant. The new and eternal covenant, do this in memory of me. This is how I want you to worship me. And that's so critical for us. We realize that from the beginning, we are all tempted to give God whatever worship we want and from the beginning, God is making it very clear

that the point of worship is not giving God what we want but giving God what he asks for. When it comes to the book of Leviticus chapter eight, it is the rite of ordination. Now, just a quick note, I know we're already, you know, eight chapters into Leviticus, already seven days into Leviticus, but it's important to get the context for this. Why is this called the Book of Leviticus? Well because this is the book that instructs the Levitical priesthood. Okay, Levitical what do you

mean? Well the tribe of Levi. So Aaron is from the tribe of Levi, and Aaron and his sons are singled out because before the issue with the golden calf, all of the people of Israel, they're all kingdom priests, basically. If you are the father of your family, you are the priest of your family. We're gonna know more about that later on. So in the day's upcoming, actually even tomorrow,

we're gonna have the final plague, the death of the firstborn But we have the Passover and what happens well The father is the one who leads that ritual the father is the one who offers that as a sacrifice the father acts as a priest priest of his family But with the issue with the golden calf and people were so quick to turn away from worship of the true God to worship however they wanted That when Moses comes down Mount Sinai and he sees this,

he says basically to arms, like we're gonna deal out vengeance. And it was men from the tribe of Levi that picked up swords and essentially dealt out justice, dealt out vengeance on those who were leading the false worship. And because of that, Moses says, you have ordained yourselves this day

because the tribe of Levi put an end to that false worship. Now, Moses said that, you've ordained yourselves today. And so from then on, priests would only come from the tribe of Levi. You wouldn't discern that call. You wouldn't choose that call. It was you were born into the tribe of Levi or you weren't. That's the only way.

But there also here in Leviticus chapter eight is the right of Levi or you weren't. That's the only way. But they're also here in Leviticus chapter eight is the rite of ordination. So even though Moses says you have ordained yourselves this day, well, that was those people. In continuing generations, this is how the rite of ordination would go for future sons of Aaron, future Levitical priests. So priests of the tribe of Levi

follow these Levitical rules. And that's where we have the priesthood it's so incredible because in the new covenant gosh you know even all these sacrifices that we've read through from chapter one up now you know to chapter eight these sacrifices of serial offerings the burnt offerings these all prefigure the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ if you read the letter to the Hebrews in context with the book of Leviticus, it's so illuminating how God had been preparing his people from the beginning to be able to give him the worship that he truly, truly deserves.

There's so much more to be said about this, but we're out of time. There's the rest of the Bible that we've got in front of us and today the thing we can focus on is this. Is that God wants to free us from our idolatry. God wants to dominate those things that dominate us. He wants to give us the freedom so we can give him the worship that he deserves. So I have to ask myself, do I worship the God that I want? Do I give God what I want to give him? Or do I worship the God who reveals himself to me me and do I give him what he has asked for? You guys

we keep praying for each other, keep praying with each other because without that I mean I know it's day 33 and you guys are cruising right along you know they say to make a good habit you go 30 days so you guys have passed that hump and I'm just so proud of you. Please keep me in your prayers. I am keeping you in my prayers every single day. My name is Father Mike and I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.