The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2023)

Episode Date: February 19, 2023

Fr. Mike encourages us to look at how we can increase our generosity to God and neighbor, inspired by the sacrificial offerings of Israel. Our readings for today are Exodus 37-38, Leviticus 26, and Psalm 82. 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 50. Congratulations. Another mile marker. I think every day, every day we take a step forward. It is a great day

because it means, okay, Lord, man, in the midst of my unfaithfulness, in the midst of my being fickle, maybe I stopped, maybe I fell off the wagon, but I'm back. This is day 50. And it is an accomplishment because we are two days away this day and tomorrow from being at the end of Exodus and the end of Leviticus and launching into the next period, which is desert wanderings. Congratulations, especially if you've ever, ever experienced that discouragement over, gosh, I've been trying to read the Bible, but I always, I always just seem to fail. Here you are today. Here you are today in the midst of whatever other places you've stumbled in the midst of whatever other places in your life right now, you may have tripped, may have fallen.

Today, you are opening your heart and your mind to God's word. And I am so proud of you. We're reading today on day 50 from Exodus chapter 37 and 38. We're also reading from Leviticus chapter 26, and we'll be praying today from Psalm 82. The Bible translation I'm using is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition, and I'm using the Red 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. You can also subscribe to this podcast. If you haven't yet, please do that.

But here we are, once again, reading from Exodus chapter 37 and 38. What we've heard about is we have, obviously, Bezalel, right? And Aholiab. They're the people, the two men who are the skilled workers. We're going to be looking at more of the making of the Ark of the Covenant and the table, the lampstand. Remember that lampstand is the menorah. So if you're kind of wondering, wait, what can I picture in my head?

Picture that. As well as the, I guess we call them the articles of furniture, for lack of a, wait, what can I picture in my head? Picture that as well as the, I guess we call them the articles of furniture for lack of a better term that are in the holy place and the holy of holies. And so what we know about the tabernacle or we know about the temple later on is that there was the, the, the holy place. And in the holy place, there were three objects or three pieces of furniture for lack of a better phrase. There was the menorah, right? The gold lampstand. There was the altar of incense that needs to be offered up on this altar.

And thirdly, there was the bread of the presence. And so the table of the bread of the presence past that veil was the holy of holies. And in that holy of holies was the Ark of the Covenant. So we're going to get a little bit of description here in chapter 37 and 38 of how they made those things and what they looked like. So it's easy to get lost as I'm describing this. I invite you, just let it be described to you. Use your imagination.

If you're not driving, close your eyes maybe and picture it. If you have access to a computer right now, even maybe pull up as I'm describing this, what did the Ark of the Covenant look like? What did the table look like? What did the altar of incense look like? And maybe you have a little visual. Or what's the Holy of Holies? How is that built next to the doorway, the ascension doorway, past the veil into the Holy of Holies and the holy place? Does that make sense? If you're driving, keep your eyes open, watch the road and focus on making sure that everyone's safe out there on the road.

But here we are, Exodus chapter 37 and 38. Making the Ark of the Covenant. Bezalel made the Ark of Acacia Wood. Two cubits and a half was its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height. And he overlaid it with pure gold within and without, and made a molding of gold around it. And he cast for it four rings of gold for its four corners, two rings on its one side and two rings on its other side. And he made poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold, and put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark. And he made a

mercy seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half was its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth. And he made two cherubim of hammered gold. On the two ends of the mercy seat he made them, one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end. Of one piece with the mercy seat he made the cherubim on its two ends. The cherubim spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, with their faces one to another, toward the mercy seat were the faces of the cherubim spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, with their faces one to another, toward the mercy seat were the faces of the cherubim,

making the table. He also made the table of acacia wood. Two cubits was its length, a cubit its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height. And he overlaid it with pure gold, and made a molding of gold around it. And he made around it a frame a hand-breadth wide and he made a molding of gold around the frame. He cast for

it four rings of gold and fastened the rings to the four corners at its four legs. Close to the frame were the rings as holders for the poles to carry the table. He made the poles of acacia wood to carry the table and overlaid them with gold. And he made the vessels of pure gold, which were to be upon the table, its plates and dishes for incense and its bowls and flagons with which to pour libations. Making the lampstand. He also made the lampstand of pure gold. The base and the shaft of the lampstand were of hammered work. Its cups, its capitals, and its flowers were of one piece with it. And there were six branches going out

of its sides, three branches of the lampstand out of one side of it, and three branches of the lampstand out of the other side of it. Three cups made like almonds, each with capital and flower on one branch, and three cups made like almonds, each with capital and flour on one branch, and three cups made like almonds, each with capital and flour on the other branch. So for the six branches going out of the lampstand. And on the lampstand itself were four cups made like almonds with their capitals and flowers, and a capital of one piece with it under each pair of the six branches going out of it. Their capitals and their branches were of one piece with it. The whole of it was of one piece of hammered work of pure gold. And he made its seven lamps and its snuffers and its

trays of pure gold. He made it and all its utensils of a talent of pure gold. Making the Altar of Incense He made the altar of incense of acacia wood. Its length was a cubit, and its breadth was a cubit. It was square, and two cubits was its height. Its horns were of one piece with it. He overlaid it with pure gold, its top and its sides round about, and its horns, and he made a molding of gold round about it. And he made two rings of gold on it under its molding, on two opposite sides of it, as holders for the poles with which to carry it. And he made the poles of gold on it under its molding on two opposite sides of it as holders for the poles with which to carry it. And he made the poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold,

making the anointing oil and incense. He made the holy anointing oil also, and the pure fragrant incense blended as by the perfumer. Chapter 38, Making the Altar of Burnt Offering. He made the altar of burnt offering also of acacia wood. Five cubits was its length and five cubits its breadth. It was square and three cubits was its height. He made horns for it on its four corners. Its horns were of one piece with it and he overlaid it with bronze. And he made all the utensils of the altar, the pots, the shovels, the basins, the forks, and the firepans, all its utensils he made of bronze. And he made for the altar a grating, a network of bronze, under its ledge, extending halfway down. He cast four rings on the four corners of the bronze grating as holders for the poles.

He made the poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with bronze. And he put the poles through the rings on, and overlaid them with bronze. And he put the poles through the rings on the sides of the altar, to carry it with them. He made it hollow with boards, making the laver and the court. And he made the laver of bronze, and its base of bronze, from the mirrors of the ministering woman, who ministered at the door of the tent of meeting. And he made the court. For the south side, the hangings of the court were of fine twined linen, a hundred cubits. The pillars were twenty and their bases twenty of bronze, but the hooks of the pillars and their fillets were of silver. And for the north side, a hundred cubits, their pillars twenty, their bases twenty of bronze,

but the hooks of the pillars and their fillets were of silver. And for the west side were hangings of fifty cubits, their pillars ten, and their sockets ten. The hooks of the pillars and their fillets were of silver, and for the front to the east fifty cubits. The hangings for one side of the gate were fifteen cubits, with three pillars and three bases. And so for the other side. On this hand and that hand, by the gate of the court, were hangings of fifteen cubits, with three pillars and three bases. All the hangings round about the court were of fine twined linen, and the bases for the pillars were of bronze. But the hooks of the pillars and their fillets were of silver. The overlaying of their capitals was also of silver, and all the pillars of the court

were filleted with silver. And the screen for the grate of the court was embroidered with needlework in blue and purple and scarlet stuff and fine twined linen. It was twenty cubits long and five cubits high in its breadth, corresponding to the hangings of the court. And their pillars were four. Their four bases were of bronze, their hooks of silver, and the overlaying of their capitals and their fillets of silver. And all the pegs for the tabernacle and for the court round about were

of bronze. Materials for the Tabernacle This is the sum of the things for the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the covenant, as they were counted at the commandment of Moses for the work of the Levites under the direction of Ithamar, the son of Aaron, the priest. Bezalel, the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that the Lord commanded Moses. And with him was Aholiab, the son of Ahissamach, of the tribe of Dan, a craftsman and designer and embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet stuff

in fine twined linen. All the gold that was used for the work in all the construction of the sanctuary, the gold from the offering was 29 talents and 730 shekels by the shekel of the sanctuary. And the silver from those of the congregation who were numbered was a hundred talents and a thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels by the shekel of the sanctuary. A becca a head, that is, half a shekel by the shekel of the sanctuary, for everyone who is numbered in the census, from twenty years old and upwards, for six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty men. The hundred talents of silver were for casting the bases of the sanctuary and the bases of the veil, a hundred bases for a hundred talents, a talent for a base. And of the thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels he made hooks for the pillars, and overlaid their capitals and made fillets for them. And the bronze that was contributed was seventy talents, and two thousand and four hundred shekels.

With it he made the bases for the door of the tent of meeting, the bronze altar, and the bronze grating for it, and all the utensils of the altar, the bases round about the court, and the bases of the gate of the court, all the pegs of the tabernacle, and all the pegs round about the court. The book of Leviticus chapter 26. Rewards for obedience. You shall make for yourselves no idols, and erect no graven image or pillar. And you shall not set up a figured stone in your land to bow down to them, for I am the Lord your God. You shall keep my Sabbaths and revere my sanctuary. I am the Lord. If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments

and do them, then I will give you your rains in the season and the land shall yield its increase. And the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. And your threshing shall last the time of vintage. And the vintage shall last to the time for sowing and you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely. And I will give peace in the land

and you shall lie down and none shall make you afraid. And I will remove evil beasts from your land and the sword shall not go through your land and you shall chase your enemies and they shall fall before you by the sword. Five of you shall not go through your land. And you shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. And I will have regard for you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you,

and will confirm my covenant with you. And you shall eat old store long kept, and you shall clear out the old to make way for the new. And I will make my abode among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people. I am the Lord your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves. And I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.

Punishment for disobedience. But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, if you spurn my statutes and if your soul abhors my ordinances so that you will not do all my commandments but break my covenant, I will do this to you. I will appoint over you sudden terror, consumption, and fever that wastes the eyes and cause life to pine away.

And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when none pursues you. And if in spite of this you will not listen to me, then I will chastise you again sevenfold for your sins, and I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like brass, and your strength shall be spent in vain. For your land shall not yield its increase, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit. Then if you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me, I will bring more plagues upon you, sevenfold as many as your sins. And I will let loose the wild beasts among you, which shall rob

you of your children and destroy your cattle and make you few in number, so that your ways shall be desolate. And if by this discipline you are not turned to me, but walk contrary to me, then I also will walk contrary to you. And I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins, and I will bring a sword upon you that shall execute vengeance for the covenant. And if you gather within your cities, I will bring a sword upon you that shall execute vengeance for the covenant. And if you gather within your cities, I will send pestilence among you and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. When I break your staff of bread, 10 women shall bake your bread in one oven and shall deliver your bread again by weight and you shall eat and not be satisfied. And if in spite of this, you will not listen to me,

but walk contrary to me, then I will walk contrary to you in fury and chastise you myself sevenfold for your sins. You shall eat the flesh of your sons and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters. And I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars and cast your dead bodies

upon the dead bodies of your idols. And my soul will abhor you. And I will lay your cities waste, and will make your sanctuaries desolate. And I will not smell your pleasing orders, and I will devastate the land so that your enemies who settle in it shall be astonished at it. And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheath the sword after you and your land shall be a desolation and your cities shall be a waste.

Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate while you are in your enemy's land. Then the land shall rest and enjoy its Sabbath. As long as it lies desolate, it shall have rest. The rest which it had not in your Sabbaths when you dwelt upon it. And as for those of you that are left, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall when none pursues.

They shall stumble over one another as if to escape a sword, though none pursues, and you shall have no power to stand before your enemies. And you shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. And those of you that are left shall pine away in your enemies' lands because of their iniquity, and also because of the iniquities of their fathers they shall pine away in your enemies' lands because of their iniquity, and also because of the iniquities of their fathers they shall pine away like them. But if they confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery which they committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me, so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the lands of their enemies,

if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac, and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. But the land shall be left by them, and enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them. And they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they spurned my ordinances, and their soul abhorred my statutes. Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them, neither will I abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God. But I will for their sake remember the covenant with their forefathers, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations,

that I might be their God. I am the Lord. These are the statutes and ordinances and laws which the Lord made between him and the sons of Israel on Mount Sinai by Moses. Psalm 82 A plea for justice, a psalm of Asaph. God has taken his place in the divine council. In the midst of the angels, he holds judgment. How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Give justice to the weak and the fatherless. Maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.

Rescue the weak and the needy. Deliver them from the hand of the wicked. They have neither knowledge nor understanding. They walk about in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken. I say, you are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you. Nevertheless, you shall die like men and fall like any prince.

Arise, O God, judge the earth, for to you belong all the nations. Father in heaven, we thank you for sharing your heart with us. We thank you so much for your commandments. We thank you for revealing to us your heart and how we are called to offer you our heart. Thank you for sharing your word with us today. And we ask you, please, be with us in all of our moments, our moments of darkness, our moments of light, moments we turn away from you, and the moments where we find ourselves deep and deep in your most sacred heart. We make this prayer, Father, in the name of your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. In the name of the Father,

Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. So there is something remarkable to talk about today. Just two quick things. One is going to be a review of a day before, and the other is today. So a bit ago yesterday, I believe where the Lord through Moses was calling upon the people to offer their offerings. Actually, it was two days ago. My goodness. And the days fly by. Um, one of the things that God instructed through Moses in Leviticus, it's here's what you must offer. Here is the grain offering, the cereal offering, right? Here's the probation offering. Here's the different burnt offerings that God demands, right? They're necessary. But a couple of days ago, God was making it very clear.

It was in Exodus chapter 34 and 35, where he has said this earlier in Exodus, but it said anyone whose heart moves them to make a freewill offering, anyone who in whom the spirit of God has moved and they want to give out of their generosity, um, come before the Lord and bring all these things, right? The gold or silver or the blue, purple, scarlet stuff, fine linen, um, goat's hairs, whatever you have, there's something there about God saying, you know, there is, there is an element where here's the worship that's demanded me. Here's the sacrifice that is required of you. But there's something that goes to the heart. And again, the sacrifice, when we offer

the sacrifice that's required of us, that is true sacrifice, right? That's true worship. But there are many times when God says, if you would like to go beyond that, if the Holy Spirit in you is moving you to give beyond that, then here's an opportunity. In fact, the people of God, the people of Israel were moved so deeply, so fully by that generosity, by that spirit of God that he's here at the end or gosh, what was that in the middle of chapter 36 where God through Moses had to say, okay, stop. People were restrained from bringing for the stuff they had was sufficient to do all the

work and more. And this is a reminder for all of us. There are some things we offer to the church, right, in support of our parish, our local parish, or support of the church ministries around the world. But also as Catholic Christians and all Christians, we're called to allow the Lord, allow the Lord to move our hearts to generosity, to supply for the needs of the people around us. Can you imagine, you know, that I think the statistic is something along these lines, that 7% of every parish provides for 90% or more of the parish work.

That only 7% of the folks who are in a parish provide for the volunteering, provide for the financial workings of a parish. And just imagine, I know Matthew Kelly had once asked this. He said, imagine, what if we increase that? Not just like, you know, double it to 14%. What if we increased it 1%? I mean, imagining that all of the stuff

the church does throughout the world, incredibly great stuff, not only locally, but also globally, internationally. Imagine if 8% of Catholics supported that work. Imagine how many people could be blessed. Imagine how many people, like we get to the point, what if we got to the point where even 10% of a parish was supporting the working of the parish? How much more good could be done? Imagine getting to the place where we were so generous with our time, with our talent,

with our treasure that we would have to say, actually stop giving. Wouldn't that be amazing? Here's Moses who says, let neither man or woman do anything more for the offering for the sanctuary. So the people were restrained from bringing for the stuff they had was sufficient to do all the work and more. I know that today, as I am reflecting on a couple of days ago, and even reflecting on what God commands to be done and crafted in his tabernacle, what I'm called to reflect upon and be convicted about is that, is am I that generous? Because if I were more generous, then at some point, the people who are suffering around the world would cease to suffer, at least from lack. And so I have to ask God, God, how are you calling me to offer what I have? How are you calling me to offer even just a bit more? because again, sacrifice is required for love.

And so that's what we're called upon to be able to offer the Lord. So that was kind of a reflection from a couple of days ago that just kind of caught up to me today as I was praying about this. And hopefully it's caught up to you as you're praying about this and reading through. We're almost at the very end of Exodus, two more chapters, one more chapter of Leviticus. But the second to last chapter of Leviticus, I just want to highlight one quick point before we conclude today's episode. And that is there are rewards, as it says, rewards for obedience and punishment for disobedience. We know that not every good thing that happens to us happens because we were good and not everything bad happens to us happens because we were not good, because we were disobedient.

That's not, it's not a one-to-one kind of a situation. We can come back to that later on when we go back to the wisdom literature. We knew that already because, you know, the very beginning of our journey, we were walking with Job and Job was a righteous man and he still had horrible things happen to him. We know that that's not the rule, but also we know that here's God in Leviticus chapter 26, who makes it clear that there are consequences for our actions. And he says, I will hand you over to the sword. I'll hand you over to these pestilence. I'll hand you over to these, these evil things that are happening, but he doesn't hand people over. He doesn't hand us over. He doesn't hand the people of Israel over

because he hates them. He hands them over because he loves them. Again and again, God says, if this still won't correct you, if this still doesn't call you back to my heart, then I'll let the next thing happen to you. And that still doesn't call you back to my heart. I'll let the next thing happen to you. Because the whole point of this is not punishment. The whole point of this is rescue. The whole point of this is not just experience my wrath. The whole point of it is this is the discipline of a father. And this is so important for all of us. You know, when we approach scripture and we don't trust God, we see these things and go like, wow, that's crazy. I'm done with this day 50. That's it. I'm I'm I'm out. But when we approach the word of God and we have that spirit of trust

where it's like, okay, if I, if I don't understand this, it must be me that doesn't understand this. Or if I begin to be suspicious of God, then I say, wait, let me pause. God is a good dad. And I don't understand what he's doing here, what he's not doing there. I have to look at him, look at life, look at myself through the lens of, okay, but God is a good dad. So why would a good dad allow these punishments to come upon those who are disobedient? Well, because just like any good dad, like any good parent, I want more for you than just your comfort. I want more for you than just for you to go about your life and do whatever it is you want to do. I want the best for you. So this is God who is the good dad. He says, I want the absolute best for my children. And so if they refuse to walk in my ways and walk contrary to me, then here's the

consequences because I want to bring them back to my heart. So my brothers and sisters, how is God calling me to be generous today so I can just supply for the needs of the people around me? How is God calling me to not walk contrary to him, but to walk in his will? Because that's what it is to be holy, to walk in the will of the Father, to act and love in the will of the Father. So we keep praying for each other because this is something we cannot do without God's grace. And so I pray for you. Please pray for me. Please pray for each other. You guys, we cannot do this on our own. Oh man. Well, what a gift we have passing up day 50.

What a gift. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.