Transcript for Day 213: The Redeemer (2023)

Hi, my name's Father Mike Schmidt and you're listening to the Bible in the Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in your podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the great adventure Bible timeline will read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today is day 213. We are reading. Roughly, I mean, four plus chapters today, we're reading Isaiah chapter 47 and 48, as well as Ezekiel chapter 8 and 9, we're also dabbling into Proverbs chapter 12 versus 13 through 16 as well as the Bible translation that I'm reading from is the revised tenor version, second Catholic edition. I'm using the great adventure Bible from ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. I'd like to know how many people have done that. That's very interesting. Well, to me, it is how many people have out or how many people have ever typed in, ascensionpress.com slash Bible in here. I don't know, just a piece of curiosity for me. Anyways, you can subscribe to this podcast if you'd like by clicking on subscribe. You can receive daily episodes unless you're listening to us in the Hello app in which case you can put music on in the background. Someone told me the other day that they can put on Gregorian chant as we're reading scripture. That's awesome. That's pretty cool. Or in a rain fall or maybe birds chirping or something like this, or maybe even firecrackling. I don't even know, but it is still regardless of what you can do with this podcast. It's day 213, Isaiah 47 and 48, Ezekiel chapter 8 and 9, Proverbs 12 verses 13 through 16. The Book of the Prophet Isaiah, chapter 47, the humiliation of Babylon. Come down and sit in the dust or virgin daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne or daughter of the Caldeans. For you shall no more be called tender and delicate, take the millstones and grind meal, put off your veil, strip off your robe and cover your legs, pass through the rivers. Your nakedness shall be uncovered, and your shame shall be seen. I will take vengeance, and I will spare no man. Our Redeemer, the Lord of Hosts, is his name, is the Holy One of Israel. Sit in silence, and go into darkness O'Daughter of the Caldeans, for you shall no more be called the mistress of kingdoms. I was angry with my people. I profanied my heritage. I gave them into your hand. You showed them no mercy. On the age it you made your yoke exceedingly heavy. You said, I shall be mistress forever, so that you did not lay these things to heart or remember their end. Now therefore, here this you lover of pleasures who sit securely, who say in your heart, I am and there is no one besides me. I shall not sit as a widow or know the loss of children. These two things shall come to you in a moment in one day the loss of children and widowhood shall come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and the great power of your enchantments. You felt secure in your wickedness, you said no one sees me. Your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray, and you said in your heart, I am, and there is no one besides me. But evil shall come upon you, for which you cannot atone disaster shall fall upon you, which you will not be able to expiate, and ruin shall come on you suddenly of which you know nothing. stand fast in your encendments and your many sorceries with which you have labored from your youth. Perhaps you may be able to succeed, perhaps you may inspire terror. You are worried with your many councils. Let them stand forth and save you, those who divide the heavens who gaze at the stars, who at the new moons predict what shall befall you. Behold, they are like stubble. The fire consumes them, they cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame. No coal for warming oneself is this, no fire to sit before. Such to you are those with whom you have labored, who have trafficked with you from their youth. They wander about each in his own direction. There is no one to save you. Chapter 48 Israel's unfaithfulness to God, the Creator, and Redeemer. Hear this a house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and who came forth from the loins of Judah, who swear by the name of the Lord and confess the God of Israel, but not in truth or right. For they call themselves after the Holy City and stay themselves on the God of Israel, the Lord of hosts is his name. The former things I declared of old that went forth from my mouth, and I made them known. Then suddenly I did them, and they came to pass. Because I know that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your forehead brass. I declared them to you from a old. Before they came to pass, I announced them to you, less you should say, my idol did them, my grave and image, and my molten image commanded them. You have heard. Now see all this. And will you not declare it? From this time forth, I make you hear new things, hidden things, which you have not known. They are created now, not long ago, before today you have never heard of them, unless you should say behold, I knew them. You have never heard you have never known. From a vault your ear has not been opened. For I knew that you would deal very treacherously and that from birth, you were called a rebel. For my name's sake, I defer my anger. And for the sake of my praise, I restrain it for you that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not like silver, I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it. For how should my name be profained? My glory, I will not give to another. Listen to me, O Jacob. And Israel, whom I called, I am he. I am the first and I am the last. My hand laid the foundation of the earth in my right hand spread out the heavens. When I call to them, they stand forth together. A symbol, all of you in here, who among them has declared these things. The Lord loves him. He shall perform his purpose on Babylon, and his arms shall be against the Caldeans. I, even I have spoken and called him, I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way. Drawn near to me, hear this, from the beginning, I have not spoken in secret, from the time it came to be, I have been there. And now, the Lord God has sent me, and his spirit. Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go. Oh, that you had listened to my commandments, then your peace would have been like a river and your righteousness, like the waves of the sea. Your offspring would have been like the sand and your descendants like its grains. Their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me. Go forth from Babylon, free from Caldea. Declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it, send it forth to the end of the earth, say, the Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob. They thirsted not when he led them through the deserts, he made water flow for them from the rock. He cleft the rock and the water gushed out. There is no peace, says the Lord, for the wicked. The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, chapter 8, vision of the abominations in the temple. In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house with the elders of Judah sitting before me, the hand of the Lord God fell there upon me. The knife-yheld a form that had the appearance of a man behold what appeared to be his loins it was fire and above his loins it was like the appearance of brightness like gleaming bronze. He put forth the form of a hand and took me by a lock of my head and the spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem. To the entrance of the gateway of the inner court that paces north, where was the seat of the image of jealousy which provokes to jealousy. And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the plain. And he said to me, son of man, lift up your eyes now in the direction of the north, so I lifted up my eyes toward the north and behold, north of the altar gate in the entrance was this image of jealousy. And he said to me, son of man, do you see what they are doing? The great abominations that the house of Israel are committing here to drive me far from my sanctuary. But you will see still greater abominations. And he brought me to the door of the court, and when I looked, behold, there was a hole in the wall. Then said he to me. Son of man, dig in the wall. And when I dug in the wall, behold, there was a door. And he said to me, go in, and see the vile abominations that they are committing here. So I went in and saw, and there portrayed upon the wall roundabout, where all kinds of creeping things, and ludes some beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel. and before them stood 70 men of the elders of the house of Israel, with Jazanaya the son of Shafan standing among them. Each had his sensor in his hand and the smoke of the cloud of incense went up then he said to me, son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark every man in his room of pictures? For they say the Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land. He said also to me, you will see still greater abominations which they commit. Then he brought me to the entrance of the Northgate of the House of the Lord and behold, their sat women weeping for tumu's. Then he said to me, have you seen this O Son of Man? You will see still greater abominations than these. And he brought me into the inner court of the House of the Lord and behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, where about 25 men with their backs to the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, worshiping the sun toward the east. Then he said to me, have you seen this O Son of Man? Is it too slight a thing for the House of Judah to commit the abominations which they commit here that they should fill the land with violence and provoke me further to anger? Behold, they put the branch to their nose. Therefore, I will deal in wrath. My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity, and though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them. Then he cried in my ears with a loud voice saying, drawn here, you executioners of the city, each with his destroying weapon in his hand. And behold, six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, every man with his weapon for slaughter in his hand. And with them, was a man clothed in linen, with a writing case at his side. And they went in and stood beside the bronze altar. Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the chair of him on which it rested to the threshold of the house, and he called to the man clothed in linen, who had the writing case at his side. In the Lord said to him, go through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark upon the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it. And to the others, he said in my hearing, pass through the city after him and kill. Your eye shall not spare, you shall show no pity, slay old men outright young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no one upon whom is the mark. And begin at my sanctuary. So they began with the elders who were before the house. Then he said to them, defile the house and fill the courts with the slain, go forth. So they went forth and killed in the city. And while they were killing, and I was left alone, I fell upon my face and cried, ah Lord God, will you destroy all that remains of Israel in the outpouring of your wrath upon Jerusalem? Then he said to me, the guilt of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, the land is full of blood and the city full of injustice, for they say the Lord has forsaken the land and the Lord does not see. As for me, my eye will not spare nor will I have pity, but I will repay their deeds upon their heads. And behold, the man clothed in linen with a writing case at his side brought backward saying, I have done as you commanded me. The Book of Proverbs 12 verses 13 through 16. An evil man is ensnared by the transgression of his lips, but the righteous escapes from trouble. From the fruit of his words, a man is satisfied with good, and the work of a man's hand comes back to him. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice. The vexation of a fool is known at once, but the prudent man ignores an insult. Father, and have one give you praise and we give you glory. And we thank you so much for your word. We thank you for the gift of life. And we thank you for the fact that things are alive, Lord God, honestly, life is your gift that we grow and the way change is your gift. both when we grow in strength and also when we grow in age and in weakness. Lord God, even in our infirmities, you can make yourself known even in our weakness. You can make your power known and you do. You often choose to do that and so we give you permission to make yourself known to us and to the world in our weakness. We give you permission to make yourself known to us and to others around us. in our brokenness and our woundedness. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen, and the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Well, great, you guys, okay. So Isaiah, chapter 47 and 48, those are the two chapters today. And in them both, you might have caught this. If you're reading along in your Bible or in the Red Adventure Bible, any Bible, it will talk about in chapter 47. It was all about the humiliation of Babylon, right? So here's Isaiah, who's talking about, yes, the coming of Babylon, They bring us into exile where they're going to destroy they're going to be the massive superpower of the world. And yet, he goes on to say, he says, and yet, your nakedness will be uncovered. Your shame will be seen. And I will take vengeance. I will spare no man. So, God is prophesying. You already prophesied through Isaiah, that Cyrus will come, the king of the Persians. And now, here's this prophecy of judgment upon Babylon, which is so powerful, especially because the Babylonians are making it clear that you felt secure. This is chapter 47 verse 10. You felt secure in your wickedness. You said, no one sees me. Your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray and you said in your heart, I am and there's no one besides me. They were proud, and they believed they did not need help. They did not need God, and so God is humiliating and humbling them. In chapter 48 though, that is a word of the Lord to Israel itself. And so again, here's the nations, the Gentile Babylon, and they thought themselves not needing God, but here is Israel, who also was unfaithful to their Creator and Redeemer. And so because of that, God says, because of that, you're gonna experience judgment. But, but this is important. I'm your Redeemer, and this is chapter 48, verse 17. I'm your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. I'm the Lord your God who teaches you to profit and lead you in the way you should go. Even limits, all that you would listen to my commandments. Then your peace would have been like a river. You're right, just in this like the waves of the Seeroff ring would have been like sand in your sentence like it's grains. And so, basically, here's God saying, I'm bringing my judgment upon you because you've been unfaithful, and yet also, if you've turned back to me, once again, we'll restore you. So there's this really incredible, again, Chapter 47 about judgment against Babylon, Chapter 48 about judgment against Israel, but also that promised Israel of, I'm still your Redeemer, I'm gonna be your savior, and I do, I do, and we'll save you. Okay, so here is Ezekiel in chapter eight and he's by the river, you know, he's he's a far far away from Jerusalem, but the Lord God takes him in a vision to see Jerusalem. And in this vision, he sees the temple and he sees not only the temple, he not only sees the abominations happening in the temple, this false worship of God going on and there are false worship of false gods going on and there, but he also sees the glory of God present in the temple. And this is so massively important. because remember that Ezekiel is the one who had that incredible vision of the Lord God with that bronze image of himself and fire basically encapsulated in this incredible power. He sees that presence of God in the temple of God. This is a vision that goes from chapter 8 to chapter 11 by the end of chapter 10 and 11. The glory of God in the temple will have departed from the temple. This tragic tragic, but at the beginning of chapter 8, and here in chapter 9, Ezekiel sees. Now here's the glory of God is still there. Number two is we also see that God it keeps calling Ezekiel, Son of Man. Now what does that mean? Because we hear this term Son of Man a bunch in the Bible. In fact, Jesus refers to himself as the Son of Man. So in this case, in Ezekiel, all it means is that he is a human being. So it just simply means you're a son of Adam. You don't hear son of human beings. And so you are a human being. In Daniel chapter 7, that term will take on an entirely new meaning because the Son of Man is the one to whom God hands all authority and power and dominion and kingdom. And so when Jesus claims to be the Son of Man, he's not merely claiming to be human, he's taking claim on that promise in Daniel chapter 7. Because the name, with that term, will have changed by Daniel chapter 7. So when Jesus claims it, he's not just claiming, I'm human, you guys. He's also claiming, I'm human, but I've received the power, the dominion and the glory from the eternal God. Last little note. Ah, this is incredible in chapter 9 of Ezekiel. Here's God who has this prophetic word to these number of men, these six men, to go out with the sword and put to death, all those who do not have this mark on their foreheads. Now, there's a writer, right? The man dressed in linen. That linen is a sign of priesthood. So this is a key thing. The linen is not a priesthood, and he's told to go put a mark on the foreheads of all those who mourn the abominations happening in the temple. Now, the mark is the Hebrew word towel, and the Hebrew word towel means tea. Basically, it's a lowercase tea, which is a cross. This is just one of those foreshadowing moments that is absolutely incredible where you realize Those people who were mourning the abominations in the temple, they were mourning the loss of true worship in the temple, were marked with a cross on their foreheads. And this spare their lives. It's one of the reasons why every baptism, there's a sign of the cross that the priest, the deacon, the bishop, and the parents and Godparents make on the forehead of the child or any person who is getting baptized. In addition, it's one of the things we do at Lent on Ash Wednesday. We get marked with the sign of the cross on our forehead. And that's a reminder, not only of this in the Seagull chapter 9, But I also was a reminder, he kept up to nine as a foreshadowing of the Lord's goodness and that he will lay down his life by humbly submitting to death even death on a cross. And it's just one of those incredible moments of just, wow, God, you planned this. way far in advance, and it is incredible. It is incredible. God is good, and what he has done is wonderful in our eyes. So, what a gift you guys to be able to be with you today, and to be able to pray with you, to be able to hear the word of God. Hopefully, you did not hear the lawnmower and the weed wagon going on in the background. I'm not sure if you did today, but if it didn't, we got to be able to get through God's word. Not get through God's word. We got to let God's word get through to us because Because we need it, we need his word to permeate our lives, to transform the way we see, transform the way we love, and transform the way we walk in this world. So I'm praying for you that that happens for you. Please pray that that happens more and more in me and man. My name's Father Mike and I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.