The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2024)

Episode Date: February 6, 2024

Today's episode dives into the mystical works of God, and what our approach should be for explaining them in the natural world, as we read from Exodus 17-18, Leviticus 12, and Psalm 73. 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 37, so let's keep on rolling along. We're going to be reading today from the book of Exodus, continuing with our journey through Exodus, chapters 17 and 18, both of those chapters, as well as the book of Leviticus,

chapter 12, which is a short chapter, but also kind of important, I guess. Sorry, that was bad. I guess. Are you kidding me? The whole thing's important. as well as we're going to pray Psalm 73. So again, Exodus 17 and 18, Leviticus 12 and Psalm 73. As always, I'm reading for the revised standard version, Catholic edition, specifically speaking, the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to get that Bible, you can go to ascensionpress.com. You can also at ascensionpress.com download for free your Bible in a year reading plan by going to ascensionpress.com slash Download for free your Bible in a Year reading plan by going to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe. You're invited, encouraged, asked. I don't know. It'd be nice if you subscribe to this podcast by just clicking

subscribe. It's relatively simple. Today, once again, we are reading from Exodus chapter 17 and 18. Exodus chapter 17 and 18. All the congregation of the sons of Israel moved on from the wilderness of sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim. But there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people found fault with Moses and said, Give us water to drink. And Moses said to them, Why do you find fault with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test? But the people thirsted there for water. And the people murmured against Moses and said, Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst? So Moses cried to the Lord, What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me. And the Lord said to Moses,

Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand And the Lord said to Moses, Israel, and he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah because of the fault finding of the sons of Israel, and because they put the Lord to the test by saying, Is the Lord among us or not? Then came Amalek and fought with Israel at Rephidim. And Moses said to Joshua, Choose for us men and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. So Joshua did as Moses told him and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, but whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands grew weary, so that they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat upon it,

and Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side and the other on the other side, so his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua mowed down Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. And the Lord said to Moses, Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, The Lord is my banner, saying, A hand upon the banner of the Lord. The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.

Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel his people, how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. Now Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, had taken Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her away, and her two sons, of whom the name of the one was Gershom, for he said, I have been a sojourner in a foreign land, in the name of the other, Eleazar, for he said, The God of my father was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh. And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness, where he was encamped at the mountain of God. And when one told Moses, Behold, your father-in-law Jethro is coming to you with your wife and her two sons with

her, Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, did obeisance and kissed him. And they asked each other of their welfare and went into the tent. Then Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, all the hardships that had come upon them in the way, and how the Lord had delivered them. And Jethro rejoiced for all the good which the Lord had done to Israel in that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians. And Jethro said, Blessed be the Lord, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh. Now I know that the Lord is greater

than all gods, because he delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians, when they dealt arrogantly with them. And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, offered a burnt offering and sacrifices to God. And Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law before God. The next day, Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood about Moses from morning till evening. When Moses' father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone and all the people stand about you from morning till evening? And Moses said to his father- that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone and all the people stand about you from morning till evening? And Moses said to his father-in-law, because the people come to me to inquire of God.

When they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between a man and his neighbor and I make them know the statutes of God and his decisions. Moses' father-in-law said to him, what you are doing is not good. You and the people with you will wear yourselves out for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to perform it alone. Listen now to my voice. I will give you counsel and God be with you. You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God. And you shall teach them the statutes and the decisions and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do.

Moreover, choose able men from all the people, such as fear God, men who are trustworthy and who hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as rulers of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. And let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. If you do this, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace. So Moses gave heed to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said. Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens, and they judged the people at all times. Hard cases they brought to Moses, but any small matter they decided themselves.

Then Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went his way to his own country. The book of Leviticus chapter 12 The Purification of Women The Lord said to Moses, Say to the sons of Israel, If any woman conceives and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days, as at the time of her menstruation she shall be unclean. And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised,

then she shall continue for thirty-three days in the blood of her purifying. She shall not touch any hallowed thing nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purifying are completed. But if she bears a female child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her menstruation, and she shall continue in the blood of her purifying for sixty-six days. And when the days of her purifying are completed, whether for a son or for a daughter, she shall continue in the blood of her purifying for sixty-six days. And when the days of her purifying are completed, whether for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the door of the tent of meeting a lamb a year old for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a turtle dove for a sin offering. And he shall offer it before the Lord, and make atonement for her,

and she shall be clean from the flow of her blood. This is the law for her who bears a child, either male or female. And if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering, and the priest shall make atonement for her, and she shall be clean. Psalm 73 Plea for Relief from Oppressors A Psalm of Asaph

Truly, God is good to the upright, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they have no pangs. Their bodies are sound and sleek. They are not in trouble as other men are. They are not stricken like other men.

Therefore, pride is their necklace. Violence covers them as a garment. Their eyes swell out of fatness. Their hearts overflow with follies. They scoff and speak with malice. Loftily, they threaten oppression. They set their mouths against the heavens and their tongues strut through the earth. Therefore, the people turn and praise them and find no fault in them. And they say, how can God know? Is their knowledge in the most high? Behold, these are the wicked, always at ease. they increase in riches.

All in vain have I kept my heart clean, and washed my hands in innocence. For all the day long I have been stricken, and chastened every morning. If I had said, I will speak thus, I would have been untrue to the generation of your children. But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God. Then I perceived their end. Truly, you set them in slippery places. You make them fall to ruin. How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors. They are like a dream when one awakes. On awakening, you despise their phantoms.

when one awakes. On awakening, you despise their phantoms. When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked at heart, I was stupid and ignorant. I was like a beast toward you. Nevertheless, I am continually with you. You hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is Verse 2. But for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works. Father in heaven, we thank you. We thank you for your word. We give you praise and glory. We ask that you please be with us right now and always. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. As always, what a gift it is to be able to hear the word of the Lord. A couple of things that are confusing sometimes. One is, let's go back to yesterday. Yesterday, we had the manna from heaven. We had the quail that were given. Again, we're going to hear about this upcoming again, but it's worth noting the day before that we had the crossing of the Red Sea. There are some people who will read some of these stories and they'll try to, I don't say if the word is demystify.

When I say demystify, I don't mean they want to cut through what's hazy, what cut through what's unknown. I think they want to take out anything that is supernatural. And so there are many people, not a ton ton but a number of people who are kind of like squeaky wheels who will say things like well the crossing of the red sea was just a natural phenomena where there was a mighty wind and it does this with a tide in the red sea it dries up a section of it and you can walk across it this kind of thing but or the that there's a thing called manna that um there's bugs that secrete this thing overnight,

and you can find it in the desert in the morning. And that's what the manna was. And yet, we realize this. I remember years ago, there's a priest who had told the story about this Jewish mom and dad who had sent their son off to college. And as he was at college, one of the professors said, oh yeah, the miracle of the crossing of the Red Sea wasn't really a miracle. It was a strong wind that blew the water to a lower level or, you know, a tide that blew it to a lower level, moved it to a lower level. So it was like two inches of water or so. And that's what they crossed upon and crossed the Red Sea through. And that's how the, you know, the Egyptians died. And so this son, you know, kind of proudly announces this to his parents. And his father was, that's a miracle. His father said, that's incredible the Egyptians died. And so this son kind of proudly announces this to his parents. And his father was, that's a miracle.

His father said, that's incredible. That's a miracle. And the son said, what are you kidding me? I just told you it was just wind, two inches of water. And his dad said, no, what's a miracle is that all of the Egyptians and Pharaoh, they drowned in two inches of water. So it's one of those kinds of situations where the scripture itself testifies to the miraculous nature of what's going on. As we noted yesterday, what we have is on the sixth day, you gather double portion. And on the seventh day, that double

portion doesn't spoil, but every other day, the double portion does spoil. Again, denoting the supernatural nature of this miracle, truly a miracle, not simply a natural phenomena, but something supernatural, a supernatural phenomena, which is worth noting, not only the parting of the Red Sea, not only the feeding of with quail or with manna, but all these ways in which the Lord God, he, even with the defeat of Amalek, you say, well, maybe they just fought hard. The people of Israel fought harder defeat of Amalek, you say, well, maybe they just fought hard. The people of Israel fought harder against the Amalekites. Well, sure.

But also, they won when Moses was interceding for them and raising the staff of the Lord above them. And they were being defeated when Moses stopped interceding or stopped raising the staff of the Lord above them. Same thing with the water at Meribah and Massah. It's the reality that we can try to demystify some things and say, was there a natural explanation? That's a real thing that Catholics do. Whenever someone claims that there's a miracle, the first step that the church does is say, ask the question, is there any

natural explanation for this? Is it possible that this happens simply through natural causes? That's the first question the church always asks. But if there is not, and these stories indicate that there are no natural explanations, then we realize, oh, when all natural explanations are eliminated, what's left is the supernatural. And that's what we have. We have God fighting for his people. Once again, God fighting for his people. Now, one last note before we take a break and see each other tomorrow is in Leviticus chapter 12 today, as we went through this very short chapter in Leviticus, it talked about a woman being unclean after giving birth. And that's one of the things that can puzzle some people. So unclean does not mean immoral. Like unclean does not mean bad.

It simply is, so the states of being clean and unclean in the Old Testament among the Jewish people, it's not a moral state. It is not good or bad. It simply means, can a person approach the temple? Can a person approach the sanctuary? Can a person approach the worship of God? Are they clean in that place

where they can do this? Not again, not morally, but simply according to the category of clean or unclean, or can they not if they're unclean? What is the determining factor for a lot of things that are clean and unclean? Like for example, for us as human beings, what would be the common denominator? Well, typically, virtually all of the factors that could make a person unclean have to do with life, have to do with life and death. So if a person comes in contact with an animal's carcass death, they're ritually unclean. So that, cause that, that has life and death, right? So if you come in contact with, with death, you're ritually unclean. Also, when there are bodily fluids, those things are not in and of themselves morally good or evil,

but they are associated with life. And so, uh, if a woman's menstruating, that's blood associated with life. It doesn't mean there's anything bad. And the Bible's not saying anything bad about this, but it's saying that, oh no, blood is associated with life. Same thing when it comes to giving birth. Same thing when it comes to other bodily fluids that are connected to life. That the distinction between clean and unclean, especially if we hear that Leviticus chapter 12 and say, what the, why is this? Why should be unclean? She just gave birth. I mean, that's life into the world. If you'd say a hundred, a hundred percent, but the determining

factor is when person is encountering something that has the power of life or death. That's my, my cumbersome way of way of pointing out that that is one of the things that can either render a person unclean or clean. Keeping in mind, never forget this, keeping in mind that unclean and clean are not moral states. They are simply states of, am I able to approach worship of the Lord, or do I need to avoid worship of the Lord until I have a state of ritual cleanness once again? Not moral cleanness, but ritual cleanness. I hope that that helps. If it doesn't, you know, we have roughly 330 or so more days to talk about this kind of thing with each other and to pray for each other because

that's what I'm doing for you. Please pray for me. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. My name is Father Mike. God bless.