Day 267: Indifference and Apathy — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)

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 your 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 267 we are in a new time period the period of the return you might have heard jeff and me jeff and me jeff and i jeff and i no jeff and me jeff and me talk about uh this new time period we have the return the people of israel have been in exile in babylon and they are now going to be set free heading back to the promised land now remember that cyrus king of persia you're going to hear his name today cyrus king of persia they had conquered the babylonians and because in the book of the prophets it talked about aciris would be raised up and he would send his people back to their homeland back to the promised land and so cyrus does this so we're reading ezra chapter one and two which is our historical book as well as haggai chapter one and two which is a prophetic book we're also reading proverbs chapter 20 verses one through three as always the bible translation i'm reading from is the revised standard version second catholic edition i'm using the great adventure bible from ascension if you want to download your own bible in-ear reading plan you can visit ascensionpress.com bible any year you can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe and then you would be subscribed um as i said it's 267 we're reading ezra chapters 1 and 2 haggai chapter 1 and 2 which is the entire book as well as proverbs chapter 20 verses 1 through 3. the book of ezra chapter 1 the end of the babylonian captivity in the first year of cyrus king of persia that the word of the lord by the mouth of jeremiah might be accomplished the lord stirred up the spirit of cyrus king of persia so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing thus says cyrus king of persia the lord the god of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has charged me to build him a house at jerusalem which is in judah whoever is among you of all his people may his god be with him and let him go up to jerusalem which is in judah and rebuild the house of the lord the god of israel he is the god who is in jerusalem and let each survivor in whatever place he sojourns be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold with goods and with beasts besides free will offerings for the house of god which is in jerusalem then rose up the heads of the father's houses of judah and benjamin and the priests and the levites everyone whose spirit god had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the lord which is in jerusalem and all who were about them aided them with vessels of silver with gold with goods with beasts and with costly wares besides all that was freely offered cyrus the king also brought out the vessels of the house of the lord which nebuchadnezzar had carried away from jerusalem and placed in the house of his gods cyrus king of persia brought these out in charge of mithridath the treasurer who countered them out to shasbajar the prince of judah and this was the number of them a thousand basins of gold a thousand basins of silver 29 sensors 30 bowls of gold 2 410 bowls of silver and a thousand other vessels all the vessels of gold and of silver were 5 469. all these did shesh bazar bring up when the exiles were brought up from babylonia to jerusalem chapter 2 list of returned exiles now these were the people of the province who came up out of the captivity of those exiles whom nebuchadnezzar the king of babylon had carried captive to babylonia they returned to jerusalem and judah each to his own town they came with zerubbabel jeshua nehemiah soraya rayalaya mordecai bilshan mizpar bigway rehum and ba'ana the number of the men of the sons of israel the sons of parosh 2172 the sons of shephetaya 372. the sons of ara 775 the sons of bahath moab namely the sons of jeshua and joab 2812 the sons of elam 1254 the sons of zatu 945 the sons of zakai 760 the sons of bani 642 the sons of bibai 623 the sons of asgad one thousand two hundred and twenty two the sons of adanakam 666 the sons of big vai 2056 the sons of adeen 454 the sons of attar namely of hezekiah 98 the sons of bizai 323 the sons of jorah 112 the sons of hashum 223 the sons of ghibar 95 the sons of bethlehem 123 the men of netaphah 56 the man of anathoth 128 the sons of asmavath 42 the sons of kiriyatharim shafirah and biroth 743 the sons of rama and giba 621 the men of mikhmas 122 the men of bethel and ayai 223 the sons of nebo 52 the sons of magbish 156 the sons of the other elam 1 254 the sons of harim 320 the sons of loud hadid and ono 725 the sons of jericho 345 the sons of sana'a 3630. [Music] the priests the sons of jidaiah of the house of jeshua 973 the sons of emer 1052 the sons of pashur 1247 the sons of harim 1017. the levites the sons of jeshua and qadmiel of the sons of hadavaya 74 the singers the sons of asaph 128 the sons of the gatekeepers the sons of shalom the sons of attar the sons of talman the sons of akub the sons of hatitah and the sons of shabbai in all 139 the temple servants the sons of ziha the sons of hasufa the sons of taba'th the sons of keras the sons of siacha the sons of padan the sons of lebanon the sons of hagabah the sons of akub the sons of hagab the sons of sham-lai the sons of hanan the sons of gidel the sons of gahar the sons of prey ayah the sons of rezan the sons of nekoda the sons of gazam the sons of uzza the sons of pasiya the sons of basai the sons of asna the sons of mayunim the sons of nephisim the sons of bakbuk the sons of hakufa the sons of har hur the sons of bazluth the sons of mahidah the sons of harsha the sons of barkhos the sons of sisera the sons of tema the sons of nizhiya and the sons of hatifa the sons of solomon's servants the sons of sotai the sons of hasafareth the sons of perudha the sons of ja'allah the sons of darkhan the sons of gidel the sons of shafitaya the sons of hathil the sons of pukarath hazabaim and the sons of ami all the temple servants and the sons of solomon's servants were 392. the following were those who came up from tel mala telhasha charub adan and immer though they could not prove their father's houses or their descent whether they belonged to israel the sons of delia the sons of tobiah and the sons of nakuda 652 also of the sons of the priests the sons of habaya the sons of hakkas and the sons of barzalai who had taken a wife from the daughters of barcelona the gileadite and was called by their name these sought their registration among those enrolled in the genealogies but they were not found there and so they were excluded from the priesthood as unclean the governor told them that they were not to partake of the most holy food until there should be a priest to consult urum and thuman the whole assembly together was 42 360 besides their men servants and maidservants of whom there were 7 337 and they had 200 male and female singers their horses were 736 their mules were 245 their camels were 435 and their donkeys were six thousand seven hundred and twenty some of the heads of families when they came to the house of the lord which is in jerusalem made free will offerings for the house of god to erect it on its site according to their ability they gave to the treasury of the work sixty-one thousand derricks of gold five thousand minas of silver and one hundred priests garments the priests the levites and some of the people lived in jerusalem and its vicinity and the singers the gatekeepers and the temple servants lived in their towns in all israel in their towns the book of haggai chapter 1 the command to rebuild the temple in the second year of darius the king in the sixth month on the first day of the month the word of the lord came by haggai the prophet to zerubbabel the son of shaltiel governor of judah and to joshua the son of jehoshadak the high priest thus says the lord of hosts this people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the lord then the word of the lord came by haggai the prophet is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies in ruins now therefore thus says the lord of hosts consider how you have fared you have sown much and harvested little you eat but you never have enough you drink but you never have your fill you clothe yourselves but no one is warm and he who earns wages earns wages to put them into a bag with holes thus says the lord of hosts consider how you have fared go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house that i may take pleasure in it and that i may appear in my glory says the lord you have looked for much and behold it came to little and when you brought it home i blew it away why says the lord of hosts because of my house that lies in ruins while you busy yourselves each with his own house therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew and the earth has withheld its produce and i have called for a drought upon the land and the hills upon the grain the new wine the oil upon what the ground brings forth upon men and cattle and upon all their labors the people obey then zerubbabel the son of sheltiel and joshua the son of jehozadak the high priest with all the remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the lord their god and the words of haggai the prophet as the lord their god had sent him and the people feared before the lord then haggai the messenger of the lord spoke to the people with the lord's message i am with you says the lord and the lord stirred up the spirit of zerubbabel the son of sheltiel governor of judah and the spirit of joshua the son of jehozadak the high priest and the spirit of all the remnant of the people and they came and worked on the house of the lord of hosts their god on the 24th day of the month in the sixth month chapter 2 the splendor of the temple in the second year of darius the king in the seventh month on the twenty-first day of the month the word of the lord came by haggai the prophet speak now to zerubbabel the son of shaltiel governor of judah and to joshua the son of jehozadak the high priest and to all the remnant of the people and say who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory how do you see it now is it not in your sight as nothing yet now take courage o zerubbabel says the lord take courage o joshua son of jehozadak the high priest take courage all you people of the land says the lord work for i am with you says the lord of hosts according to the promise that i made you when you came out of egypt my spirit abides among you fear not for thus says the lord of hosts once again in a little while i will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land and i will shake all nations so that the treasures of all nations shall come in and i will fill this house with splendor says the lord of hosts the silver is mine and the gold is mine says the lord of hosts the latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former says the lord of hosts and in this place i will give prosperity says the lord of hosts a rebuke and a promise on the 24th day of the ninth month in the second year of darius the word of the lord came by haggai the prophet thus says the lord of hosts ask the priests to decide this question if one carries holy flesh in the skirt of his garment and touches with his skirt bread or potage or wine or oil or any kind of food does it become holy the priests answered no then haggai said if one who was unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these does it become unclean the priests answered it does become unclean then haggai said so is it with this people and with this nation before me says the lord and so with every work of their hands and what they offer there is unclean please now consider what will come to pass from this day onward before a stone was placed upon a stone in the temple of the lord how did you fare when one came to a heap of twenty measures there were but ten when one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures that were but 20. i struck you in all the products of your toil with blight and mildew and hail yet you did not return to me says the lord consider from this day onward from the 24th day of the ninth month since the day that the foundation of the lord's temple was laid consider is the seed yet in the barn do the vine the fig tree the pomegranate and the olive tree still yields nothing from this day on i will bless you god's promise to zerubbabel the word of the lord came a second time to haggai on the 24th day of the month speak to zerubbabel governor of judah saying i am about to shake the heavens and the earth and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms i am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations and overthrow the chariots and their riders and the horses and the riders shall go down every one by the sword of his fellow on that day says the lord of hosts i will take you o zerubbabel my servant the son of sheltiel says the lord and make you like a signet ring for i have chosen you says the lord of hosts the book of proverbs chapter 20 verses 1 through 3 wine is a mocker strong drink a brawler and whoever is led astray by it is not wise the dread wrath of a king is like the growling of a lion he who provokes him to anger forfeits his life it is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife but every fool will be quarreling father in heaven we give you praise and glory we thank you thank you for bringing us back to the story thank you for bringing us back to this place of return this opportunity that the people of israel had to come home to go to the promised land even though it was a foreign land to so many of them we ask you to help us because you know we know that you've made us for two worlds you made us for this world and you made us for the next world and that while this world during this life is our home this is not our permanent home you've made us for another home you've made us for another world it is a world that is foreign to us and oftentimes we are indifferent to it but lord god in this story of return we ask that you please not only remind us of the story of your people but also remind us of our destiny that while we live in this world we are made for another world while this world is currently our home it is not our final and ultimate home give us a longing for that home give us the will to fight for that home and bring us home ultimately by your grace in jesus name we pray amen in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen just really brief what a gift to have the proverbs there are so many good ones well you know proverbs 20 verse 1 wine is a mocker strong drink a brawler and whoever is led astray by it is not wise yeah just that sense of how many people have let their lives be dominated by alcohol and yeah but stray by is not wise and also proverbs 20 verse 3 it is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife but every fool will be quarreling and isn't that the case like so often we jump into every little fight every little argument every little whether it be nitpicking or every little kind of like maybe every quarrel and we recognize that way back when we were reading the story of king david we had asked that prayer was god you show me the battles you want me to fight and the battles you want me to stay clear of where do you want me to engage and go up and do battle or engage i use those words again and where do you want me to just say okay that's a fight but it's not my fight to have that wisdom to be able to do that and to not have that wisdom is as scripture says to be a fool so going back to our scriptures today gosh is so good we have this story of the return right the beginning of the return in ezra ezra is the scribe and we're gonna see that chapters one through six and ezra are gonna look a certain way and then the second half of the book of ezra is gonna look a different way but the books of ezra and nehemiah were originally one contain book usually they're called first and second book of ezra but the two books originally won probably written the same time as chronicles remember chronicles is that summary story that we read already the summary story of god leading his people from slavery in egypt to freedom to the land of the promised land to exile and and back again so here is the story back again right the story of return and one of the things we realize is that this beginning of the book of ezra fulfills the prophecy of jeremiah where king cyrus was named as the one who would let the people of israel go back to israel i believe i have to double check on this one i thought also that he might be named in isaiah i'm going to double check on that get back to you because we have a few days with ezra and nehemiah but there's something really remarkable about this story that here's god being faithful to his promise remember he brought his people the people israel into exile not to destroy them not at all to destroy them but to reform their hearts and now they have the opportunity to go back home and one of the things we're going to see is that not everybody goes back home in fact there are a number of waves kind of like there were waves of people in the exile three waves they're going to be three waves of people returning from exile back to jerusalem but an interesting thing is not everyone decides to return even though here's cyrus king of persia who goes into the storehouses of the babylonians and says okay here's all big vessels or many of the vessels at least that were stolen from the temple of god you can bring them back decorate the temple when it's built and that's where we bring our that's what that brings us to my goodness easy for me to say that brings us to the book of haggai hey guy only two chapters long so it's the second maybe shortest book of the old testament it can be divided into maybe three parts and those three parts is i've heard a bible teacher talk about this that the first part is apathy that here's the people who they were brought back to jerusalem so they could rebuild the temple you know all those lists of families all the levites all the priests they came home so that they could rebuild the temple and now it's been 16 years that's what haggai's written it's been 16 years since they've been back and they haven't even started constructing the temple they're apathetic towards this they're just building their own homes and so god points out yeah um you might have noticed that you're not satisfied you might have noticed that you drink but you're not you know you're still thirsty you might have noticed you eat but you're still hungry i you might have noticed you keep doing all these things and you're not satisfied that might have something to do with the fact that you haven't really actually served me you haven't done what you've brought back to do which is to rebuild the temple so they're apathetic and second in chapter they're discouraged because they started rebuilding and things still haven't turned around quite yet and thirdly here is this story of the fact that okay unless they reform their lives there's going to be consequences it's the same story right of our lives the same story of the entire bible unless you turn from evil and turn back to the lord your sin is not gonna end with you that is gonna be passed on to the people around you it's gonna be passed on to the way you end up living so this is haggai the prophet not only saying okay get rid of your apathy get rid of your indifference to the house of the lord jack is saying that you don't also don't have to be discouraged don't be long in the mouth don't long in the face whatever don't be sad you can actually move forward god is calling you he's going to help you with this project and then thirdly reform your lives or else just like in ancient times just like in older times just like for your fathers and your father's fathers and your mothers and your mother's mothers your evil will not end with you but will be passed on so reform now and it's such a good short book but also just convicts us because there are areas of our lives where we're apathetic areas of our lives we're discouraged in areas of our lives where we realize i need to reform and turn back to the lord pronto and so we ask the lord to help us turn back to him because we're made for him and he's given his life for us so for those wounds of apathy discouragement and need for repentance i am praying for you and for the same wounds please pray for me my name is father mike i cannot wait to see you tomorrow god bless [Music] you

Channel: The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)

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Keywords: ascension, ascension press, ascension presents, the bible in a year, bible in a year podcast, fr. mike, fr. mike schmitz, father mike, fr. mike schmidt, biy, biay, fr. mike bible in a year, jeff cavins, bible reading plan, biblical worldview, catholic podcasts, Ezra 1, Ezra 2, Haggai 1, Haggai 2, Proverbs 20, jeremiah, prophesy of jeremiah, cyrus, king cyrus, God's promises, reformation of hearts, serve the Lord, turn from evil, turn back to the Lord, house of the Lord

Id: 4_15qozDj0A

Length: 22min 23sec (1343 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 24 2021