The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2023)

Episode Date: February 20, 2023

As we finish our reading of Exodus, Fr. Mike recaps the events of Israel and how God shaped his people in worship. Today's readings are Exodus 39-40, Leviticus 27, and Psalm 83. 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 51. Let's keep on going. Actually, my goodness, congratulations to you. This is, I think, a pretty monumental day because not only is this the last day that we are reading the book of Exodus, we're reading Exodus chapter 39 and 40, and also the last day we're reading from the

book of Leviticus chapter 27, but it is also the last day that we're in. That's the third time period. Remember, there's 12 time periods that we're walking through. And when it comes to the narrative books of scripture, we had the early world, we had the patriarchs, and now we have Egypt and Exodus. Tomorrow we'll move into the desert wanderings. And just again, congratulations, because it is not necessarily an easy thing to have carved out this kind of time to be able to spend with the Lord and to hear his word every single day. This is our day 51, but maybe this is,

you know, day 100 for you. Maybe it's taken a while for you to get to this point, but that is no problem because I am just absolutely convinced that the more and more, the longer and longer that we do this, that we expose ourselves and like just immerse ourselves in God's word, it changes how we see, it changes how we think, it changes how we love. In fact, that's in so many ways, the heart of what we're trying to do. There's this thing, there's this Greek word called metanoia and metanoia means to change your mind, to have your mind transformed. And nothing like God's grace and nothing like his word proclaimed does that to us. It changes our mind. It changes how we, gosh, it changes what we love and it changes how we see. And it's just, that's, it's, it's incredible. So this is day 51.

As I said, we're reading from Exodus chapter 39 and 40 from Leviticus 27. And also we're praying today from Psalm 83. As always, the Bible translation that I'm reading is the revised standard version, second Catholic edition. I'm using the great adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. You can probably, you haven't subscribed yet. My guess is you've subscribed. So you're probably tired of me telling you, invite, inviting you to do that. Not telling you what to, I'm not here to tell you what to do. Once again, the last two chapters of Exodus, the last chapter of Leviticus and Psalm 83,

the book of Exodus chapter 39. Making the priest's garments. And of the blue and purple and scarlet stuff they made finely wrought garments for ministering in the holy place. They made the holy garments for Aaron as the Lord had commanded Moses. And he made the ephod of gold, blue and purple and scarlet stuff and fine twined linen. And gold leaf was hammered out and cut into threads to work into the blue and purple and scarlet stuff and fine twined linen. And gold leaf was hammered out and cut into threads to work into the blue and purple and the scarlet stuff and into the fine twined linen in skilled design.

They made for the ephod shoulder pieces, joined to it at its two edges, and the skillfully woven band upon it to belt it on was of the same materials and workmanship of gold, blue and purple and scarlet stuff and fine twined linen as the Lord had commanded Moses. The onyx stones were prepared, enclosed in settings of gold filigree and engraved like the engravings of a signet, according to the names of the sons of Israel. And he set them on the shoulder pieces of the ephod

to be stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel, as the Lord had commanded Moses. He made the breastpiece in skilled work, like the work of the ephod, of gold, blue and purple and scarlet stuff and fine twine linen. It was square. The breastpiece was made double, a span its length and a span its breadth when doubled. And they set it in four rows of stones. A row of sardius, topaz, and carbuncle was the first row, and the second row an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond, and the third row adjacent an agate and an amethyst, and the fourth row a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper. They were enclosed in settings of gold filigree. There were twelve

stones with their names according to the names of the sons of Israel. They were like signets, each engraved with its name for the twelve tribes. And they made on the breastpiece twisted chains like cords of pure gold. And they made two settings of gold filigree and two gold rings, and put the two rings on the edges of the breastpiece. And they put the two settings of gold filigree and two gold rings, and put the two rings on the edges of the breastpiece. And they put the two cords of gold in the two rings at the edges of the breastpiece, two ends of the two cords they had attached to the two settings of filigree, thus they attached it in front to the shoulder pieces of the ephod. Then they made two rings of gold and put them at the two ends of the breastpiece on its inside edge next to the ephod. And they made two rings of gold and put them at the two ends of the breastpiece on its inside edge next to the ephod.

And they made two rings of gold and attached them in front to the lower part of the two shoulder pieces of the ephod at its joining above the skillfully woven band of the ephod. And they bound the breastpiece by its rings to the rings of the ephod with a lace of blue so that it should lie upon the skillfully woven band of the ephod and that the breastpiece should not come loose from the ephod, and that the breastpiece should not come loose from the ephod, as the Lord had commanded Moses. He also made the robe of the ephod woven all of blue, and the opening of the robe in it was like the opening in a garment, with a binding around the opening that it might not be torn. On the skirts of the robe they made

pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet stuff in fine twined linen. They also made bells of pure gold and put the bells between the pomegranates upon the skirts of the robe round about between the pomegranates. A bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate round about the skirts of the robe for ministering, as the Lord had commanded Moses. They also made the coats woven of fine linen for Aaron and his sons, and the turban of fine linen, and the caps of fine linen, and the linen britches of fine twined linen, and the sash of fine twined linen, and of blue and purple and scarlet stuff embroidered with needlework as the Lord had commanded Moses. And they made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold, and wrote upon it an inscription, like the engraving of a signet, Holy to the Lord. And they tied to it a lace of blue,

to fasten it on the turban above, as the Lord had commanded Moses. The work finished. Thus all the work of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting was finished, and the sons of Israel had done according to all that the Lord had commanded Moses, so had they done. And they brought the tabernacle to Moses, the tent and all its utensils, its hooks, its frames, its bars, its pillars, and its bases, the covering of tanned rams, skins and goat skins, and the veil of the screen, the ark of the covenant with its poles and the mercy seat, the table with all its utensils and the bread of the presence, the lampstand of pure gold and its lamps with the lamps set in all its utensils and the oil for the light, the golden altar,

the anointing oil and the fragrant incense, and the screen for the door of the tent, the bronze altar and its grating of bronze, its poles and all its utensils, the laver and its base, the hangings of the court, its pillars and its bases, and the screens for the gate of the court, its cords and its pegs, and all the utensils for the service of the tabernacle for the tent of meeting, the finely worked garments for ministering in the holy place, the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons to serve as priests. According to all that the Lord had commanded Moses, so the sons of Israel had done all the work.

And Moses saw all the work, and behold, they had done it, as the Lord had commanded. So had they done it, and Moses blessed them. Chapter 40. The Erection of the Tabernacle. The Lord said to Moses, On the first day of the first month, you shall erect the tabernacle of the tent of meeting, and you shall put in it the ark of the covenant, and you shall screen the ark with the veil, and you shall bring in the table and set its arrangements in order, and you shall bring in the table and set its arrangements in order and you shall bring in the lampstand and set up its lamps and you shall put the golden altar for incense before the ark of the covenant and set up the screen for the door of the tabernacle. You shall set the altar of burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting

and place the laver between the tent of meeting and the altar and put water in it and you shall set up the court round about and hang up the screen for the gate of meeting and the altar and put water in it. And you shall set up the court round about and hang up the screen for the gate of the court. Then you shall take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and all that is in it and consecrate it and all its furniture and it shall become holy. You shall also anoint the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils and consecrate the altar and the altar shall be most holy. You shall also anoint the laver and its base, and consecrate it. Then you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the tent of meeting, and shall wash them with water, and put upon Aaron the holy garments.

And you shall anoint him and consecrate him, that he may serve me as priest. You shall bring his sons also and put coats on them, and anoint them, as you anointed their father, that they may serve Thus did Moses, according to all that the Lord commanded him, so he did. And in the first month of the second year, on the first day of the month, the tabernacle was erected. Moses erected the tabernacle was erected. Moses erected the tabernacle. He laid its bases and set up its frames and put in its poles and raised up its pillars. And he spread the tent over the tabernacle and put the covering of the tent over it as the Lord had commanded Moses. And he took the covenant and put it into the ark and put the poles on the ark

and set the mercy seat above the ark. And he brought the ark into the tabernacle, and set up the veil of the screen, and screened the ark of the covenant, as the Lord had commanded Moses. And he put the table in the tent of meeting on the north side of the tabernacle outside the veil, and set the bread in order on it before the Lord, as the Lord had commanded Moses. And he put the lampstand in the tent of meeting opposite the table on the south side of the tabernacle and set up the lamps before the Lord as the Lord had commanded Moses. And he put the golden altar in the tent of meeting before the altar of burnt offering at the door of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting, and offered upon it the burnt offering and the cereal offering,

as the Lord had commanded Moses. And he set the laver between the tent of meeting and the altar, and put water in it for washing, with which Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet. When they went into the tent of meeting, and when they approached the altar, they washed as the Lord had commanded Moses. And he erected the court

round about the tabernacle and the altar and set up the screen of the gate of the court. So Moses finished the work, the cloud and the glory of the Lord. Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord. Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting, because the cloud abode upon it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the sons of Israel would go onward. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not go onward till the day that it was taken up from over the tabernacle, the sons of Israel would go onward. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not go onward till the day that it was taken up. For throughout all

their journeys, the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel. The book of Leviticus chapter 27. Votive Offerings. 50 shekels of silver according to the shekel of the sanctuary. If the person is a female, your valuation shall be 30 shekels. If the person is from five years old up to 20 years old, your valuation shall be for a male 20 shekels and for a female 10 shekels. If the person is from a month old up to five years old, your valuation shall be for a male five shekels of silver and for a female your valuation shall be three shekels of silver. And if the person is sixty years old and upward, then your valuation for a male shall be fifteen shekels, and for a female ten shekels. And if a man is too poor to pay your valuation, then he shall bring the person before the priest, and the priest shall value him,

according to the ability of him who vowed the priest shall value him. If it is an animal such as men offer as an offering to the Lord, all of such that any man gives to the Lord is holy. He shall not substitute anything for it or exchange it, a good for a bad or a bad for a good. And if he makes any exchange of beast for beast, then both it and that for which it is exchanged shall be holy. And if it is an unclean

animal, such as is not offered as an offering to the Lord, then the man shall bring the animal before the priest, and the priest shall value it as either good or bad. As you the priest value it, so it shall be. But if he wishes to redeem it, he shall add a fifth to the valuation. When a man dedicates his house to be holy to the lord the priest shall value it as either good or bad as the priest values it so it shall stand and if he who dedicates it wishes to redeem his house he shall add a fifth of the valuation of money to it and it shall be his if a man dedicates to the Lord part of the land which is his by inheritance, then your valuation shall be according to the seed for it. A sowing of a homer of barley shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver. If he dedicates his field from the year of Jubilee,

it shall stand at your full valuation. But if he dedicates his field after the Jubilee, then the priest shall compute the money value for it according to the years that remain until the year of jubilee, and a deduction shall be made from your valuation. And if he who dedicates the field wishes to redeem it, then he shall add a fifth of the valuation in money to it, and it shall remain his. But if he does not wish to redeem the field,

or if he has sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed any more. But the field, when it is released in the Jubilee, shall be holy to the Lord, as a field that has been devoted. The priest shall be in possession of it. If he dedicates to the Lord a field which he has bought, which is not a part of his possession by inheritance, then the priest shall compute the valuation for it up to the year of Jubilee, and the man shall give the amount of the valuation on that day as a holy thing to the Lord. In the year of Jubilee, the field shall return to him from whom it was bought, to whom the land belongs as a possession by inheritance. Every valuation shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary. Twenty geras

shall make a shekel. But a firstling of animals, which as a firstling belongs to the Lord, no man may dedicate. Whether ox or sheep, it is the Lord's. But if it is an unclean animal, then he shall buy it back at your valuation, and add a fifth to it, or if it is not redeemed, it shall be sold at your valuation. But no devoted thing that a man devotes to the Lord, of anything that he has, whether of man or beast, or of his inherited field, shall be sold or redeemed. Every devoted thing is most holy to the Lord. No one devoted who is to be utterly destroyed from among men shall be ransomed. He shall be put to death. All the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees,

is the Lord's. It is holy to the Lord. If a man wishes to redeem any of his tithe, he shall add a fifth to it. In all the tithe of herds and flock, every tenth animal of all that pass under the herdsman's staff shall be holy to the Lord. A man shall not inquire whether it is good or bad, neither shall he exchange it. And if he exchanges it, then both it and that for which it is exchanged shall be holy. It shall not be redeemed. These are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses for the sons of Israel on Mount Sinai. Psalm 83. Prayer for judgment on Israel's foes. A song. A psalm of Asaph.

O God, do not keep silence. Do not hold your peace or be still, O God. For behold, your enemies are in tumult. Those who hate you have raised their heads. They lay crafty plans against your people. They consult together against your protected ones. They say, come, let us wipe them out as a nation. Let the name of Israel be remembered no more. Yes, they conspire with one accord. Against you, they make a covenant.

The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hegrites, Gebel and Ammon and Amalek, Philistia and the inhabitants of Tyre, Assyria also has joined them. They are the strong arm of the children of Lot. Do to them as you did to Midian, as to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon, who were the destroyer at Endor, who became dung for the ground. Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeb, all their princes like Zeba and Zilmunna, who said, let us take possession for ourselves of the pastures of God. Oh my God, make them like whirling dust, like chaff before the wind. As fire consumes the forest, as the flame sets the mountains ablaze,

so you pursue them with your tempest and terrify them with your hurricane. Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek your name, O Lord. Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever. Let them perish in disgrace. Let them know that you alone, whose name is the Lord, are the most high over all the earth. Father in heaven, thank you so much. Thank you for your word. And thank you for leading us on this journey.

Thank you for sharing your heart with us because you enlighten us with your word. You shape our minds, our hearts. You fill them with your goodness when we open ourselves to you. And so we ask you to please help us to trust in you. Help us to continue to be open to you. Help us to have inquisitive minds, but not skeptical minds. Help us to have hearts that are wise, but not hearts that are cynical. Lord God, we trust in you, and we love you, and we thank you. Please receive our thanks this day. Receive our thanks through 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. So we have journeyed through Exodus and Leviticus and the end of Exodus and Leviticus ends with what? Well, it ends with some of the

most important things. It ends with the tabernacle in Exodus. Keeping this in mind, you know, Exodus carries the narrative, right? Obviously, but there've been a number of chapters, a number of days that we've been journeying through the book of Exodus where we kind of stopped when it came to the narrative. And we focused on the priest's garments and we focused on the building of the labor. The labor is like the bowl for washing, right? So just keep that in mind. We focused on the altar of incense. We focused on the menorah, all these pieces. Why? Because of the priority of place of worship. This is so important for all of us, especially all of us who are going through the Bible. We realize that here is God's word that is so, so important. And yet, and yet I would dare to say that almost

even more important, maybe, maybe not even almost, but just important, is the worship of God. So we receive God's word, right? Because it shapes our minds. It informs us who God himself is. But how does God shape his people in the old covenant and in the new? By worship. And so getting the worship right is so absolutely critical. And so just keep that right is so absolutely critical. And so just keep that in mind because this isn't the last we've heard of the tabernacle. This isn't the last we've heard of God's law either because also there is a creed and there's also what God reveals about himself. And we're going to continue to hear about that because that's what's happening in the Bible, right? God revealing himself.

But we will never be able to replace worship of God with just hearing about God. Always, always, always. As men and women who have been made in his image and likeness, those who have been consecrated to him through baptism, we are called 100% to worshiping him. And that's one of the reasons why I just think this is so remarkable. The last words of the book of Exodus. We talk about the cloud covered the tent of meeting.

You know, they assembled ordinary stuff, right? I mean, it was good stuff. Gold is pretty great. And bronze is pretty great. And they fashioned these articles of furniture and they wove incredible pieces of clothing for Aaron and for Aaron's sons, those priests. But they were ordinary until they were consecrated, until they were set apart, until they were made holy. And it says there,

and when Moses anointed them, God made them holy. And then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And so what was just ordinary before, these pieces of furniture were now consecrated and then God's presence was present. And there's something about that that should remind every one of us when it comes to not only holy places and holy things, but also ourselves who are pretty ordinary when it comes to how we've been created. I mean, fearfully and wonderfully made, yes, of course, but ordinary. Yet when we are consecrated, we are made extraordinary. And when we have God's presence with us, there's something extraordinary about that.

It's so remarkable. The last lines, it said, when throughout all their journey, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the sons of Israel would go onward. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not go onward until the day that it was taken up. And one of the things about that is we just realized that we wait on the Lord.

When he's ready to move, we move. And when he tells us to stay, we stay. The last little note here is from Leviticus chapter 27, this teaching on votive offerings. And I think there's something that will obviously, scripture will teach us again and again, more and more things. But what votive offerings are is this reality that yes, there were some, we talked about this before, there are some things that were commanded. You must offer this. You must offer these thank offerings or these cereal offerings or these sin offerings or guilt offerings. But some Israelites were so moved by the Lord, they wanted to give more donations through a special votive offering. And so since

we have this conversion value of, you know, male 20 years old, up to six years old, a woman, a female from that old, you know, 50 shekels and 30 shekels and 20 shekels. What is that? What we're seeing is that, you know, that only a Levite could work in the temple. And so if a person wanted to serve the temple, they wanted to serve the Lord, but they couldn't. And to serve the Lord really specifically means serve at like being like serving in the temple. But they can't because they're not a Levite. But what they can do is they could say,

well, if I'm 20 to 60 years old, the worth of my service would be 60 shekels. Is that what it was? Yeah, it was. The value of my work would be 50 shekels. If I'm a female from 20 to 60 years old, the value of my work would be 30 shekels. And so a person could say that I know I can't be in the temple myself, but I can offer to the Lord, I can offer to the temple service the value of my work.

Same kind of thing when it came to, I could vow an animal. Now, some animals are dedicated to the Lord immediately, like the first born male of every flock or herd that belongs to God. So that's not a votive offering. But if there was another kind of animal that you wanted to dedicate to the Lord, fantastic, you can do that. But I love the fact that scripture makes a point of saying that you might dedicate a, you know, say a calf when it gets born and say, this is my votive offering. But if that calf grows up to be like amazing, it goes up to be one of those cats are like, oh shoot, this is, I did not want to give away this prize steer.

It's like, no, it's holy to the Lord. You gave it to the Lord. You must keep it. Or you have to pay, redeem it back with an extra fifth. And I just think there's something good about just, I just mean like the normal, like the realness of the dedication of anything to the Lord. Because how many times can you and I get to the place where we're thinking, okay, I want to give this to the Lord, you know, the beginning, even the beginning of our day, say, God, this is yours. I want to dedicate this beginning of the day to you. And then I'm like, oh, I have another opportunity

to do something else, or I have another opportunity to go somewhere else. And we want to take it back. And that's, ha, there's something in there. It's just like, no, if it's his, then it's his. And if I've made this dedication, for example, if I've said that, yeah, at eight o'clock, I go to do a daily mass. Oh, but something else came up. Like, oh no, if I've said that, yeah, at eight o'clock I go to do what a daily mass. Oh, but something else came up like, oh no, if I made that dedication to the Lord, then that eight o'clock time is his. And I can't just take it back. See, there's, it's always the book of Leviticus. It's always, there's some things that belong to the Lord. We must do because he's asked us to do. And there's some things that we get to do because he's moved our hearts

to say this with love and yet to offer this with love. And yet sometimes we want to take back our hearts. And I just love how, again, how real the book of Leviticus and all the entire Bible gets to be with us because there are so many times when we would say, I want to offer X and then we might want to take it back. And it's so good to be called out in that way, in a way that just, here's God who says, I know your heart. I know that that happens sometimes. And so here's what you do when that happens.

It's holy. You consecrated it to me. So just let it be mine. And I think that's pretty awesome. What's also pretty awesome is the fact that you have concluded day 51. Tomorrow on day 52, we're going to begin the desert wanderings. So not only will we have Mr. Jeff Cavins join us to introduce this new period tomorrow, which I'm super excited about. He gives us an overview of what are the desert wanderings and how is it

significant? How is it different? We see the people of Israel be transferred from being slaves in Egypt and through the Exodus. And now here they are gonna be journeying through the wilderness in Numbers and in Deuteronomy. And also we'll start day 52, which is Numbers chapter one, Deuteronomy chapter one and Psalm 85. But that is tomorrow.

Today, rejoice because you have dedicated this time to the Lord. You've offered it to him and it is his and nothing ever given to the Lord is ever wasted. I am praying for you. Please, please keep praying for each other and pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.