← The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 270: God's Favor with Ezra (2025)
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Fr. Mike explains how God’s favor was with Ezra because he set his heart to study God's laws, to obey his laws, and to teach his laws to others. We also learn about hypocritical fasting, and how our sacrifices should remind us that everything ultimately belongs to God at all times. Today's readings are Ezra 7-8, Zechariah 7-8, and Proverbs 20:12-15.
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We can't lose our faith the way we lose our car keys. We either give it away or we let it decay because we don't use it. Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and in my new book Building a Life of Virtue in a World of Chaos, I tell faith filled stories that inspire you to live a life of virtue that flows from the unshakable power of God. Although we're surrounded by a culture that mocks virtue, we can feed ourselves stories that really do uphold what is good and promote a virtuous life. When we live this way, we experience freedom and joy like never before. It's my prayer that the stories in my book Unshakeable will inspire you to fight the battle for a virtuous life and win through trust in an unshakeable God. Order your copy@ascensionpress.com 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 270. We're reading today from Ezra chapters 7 and 8, Zechariah chapter 7 and 8, as well as Proverbs chapter 20, verses 12 through 15. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, second Catholic Edition. I am 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 Bibleina year. You can also subscribe to this podcast and receive daily episodes and daily updates and all the things. Every day it's day 270 we're reading Ezra 7 and 8. Also, did I ever mention this Ezra and Nehemiah. Nehemiah is the book we're going to start the day after tomorrow is actually the same scroll. So it's the same story. It's kind of part one and part two. It was originally, as I said, written on the same scroll and somewhere in the Middle Ages it was divided up into into two different books. And so just FYI, so when we hit the end of Ezra and begin the beginning of Nehemiah, I don't want you to think that Nehemiah is better than Ezra. It's the same book. So there we go. I got to it and got to work it in better Than Israel. Okay, as I said, it's day 270. Reading Ezra 7 and 8, Zechariah the prophet, 7 and 8, as well as Proverbs, chapter 20, verses 12 through 15. The book of Ezra, chapter 7. The arrival and work of Ezra. Now, after this, in the reign of Artaxerxes, king of Persia. Ezra the son of Seraiah, son of Azariah, son of Hilkiah, son of Shallum, son of Zadok, son of Achituba, son of Amariah, son of Azariah, son of Merioth, son of Zerahiah, son of Uzzi, son of Buki, son of Abishua, son of Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, the chief priest. This Ezra went up from Babylonia. He was a scribe skilled in the law of Moses, which the Lord, the God of Israel, had given. And the king granted him all that he asked for, for the hand of the Lord his God was upon him. And there went up also to Jerusalem in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king, some of the sons of Israel, and and some of the priests and Levites, the singers and gatekeepers and the temple servants. And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king. For on the first day of the first month he began to go up from Babylonia. And on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, for the good hand of his God was upon him. For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach his statutes and ordinances in Israel. The letter of Artaxerxes to Ezra. This is a copy of the letter which King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra, the priest, the scribe, learned in matters of the commandments of the Lord and his statutes for Israel. Artaxerxes, king of Kings, to Ezra, the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven. And now I make a decree that any one of the sons of Israel or their priests or Levites in my kingdom who freely offers to go to Jerusalem, may go with you. For you are sent by the king and his seven counselors to make inquiries about Judah and Jerusalem, according to the law of your God, which is in your hand, and also to convey the silver and gold which the king and his counselors have freely offered to the God of Israel, whose dwelling is in Jerusalem, with all the silver and gold which you shall find in the whole province of Babylonia, and with the freewill offerings of the people and the priests, vowed willingly for the House of their God which is in Jerusalem. With this money, then, you shall with all diligence buy bulls, rams and lambs with their cereal offerings and their drink offerings, and you shall offer them upon the altar of the house of your God which is in Jerusalem. Whatever seems good to you and your brethren to do with the rest of the silver and gold you may do according to the will of your God. The vessels that have been given you for the service of the house of your God, you shall deliver before the God of Jerusalem. And whatever else is required for the house of your God which you have occasion to provide, you may provide it out of the king's treasury. And I, Artaxerxes the king, make a decree to all the treasurers in the province beyond the river, whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, requires of you, be it done with all diligence up to a hundred talents of silver, a hundred cors of wheat, a hundred baths of wine, a hundred baths of oil and salt, without prescribing how much? Whatever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be done in full for the house of the God of heaven, lest his wrath be against the realm of the king and his sons. We also notify you that it shall not be lawful to impose tribute, custom, or toll upon any one of the priests, the Levites, the singers, the doorkeepers, the temple servants, or other servants of this house of God. And you, Ezra, according to the wisdom of your God, which is in your hand, appoint magistrates and judges who may judge all the people in the province beyond the river, all such as know the laws of your God and those who do not know them. You shall teach. Whoever will not obey the law of your God and the law of the king, let judgment be strictly executed upon him, whether for death, or for banishment, or for confiscation of his goods, or for imprisonment. Blessed be the Lord, the God of our fathers, who put such a thing as this into the heart of the king to beautify the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem, and who extended to me his merciful love before the king and his counsellors and before all the king's mighty officers. I took courage, for the hand of the Lord my God was upon me. And I gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me. Chapter 8. Heads of Families who returned with Ezra. These are the heads of their fathers houses. And this is the genealogy of those who went up with me from Babylonia in the reign of Artaxerxes the king of the sons of Phinehas of the sons of Ithamar, of the sons of David Hattush of the sons of Shekaniah, of the sons of Parosh, Zechariah with whom were registered 150 men of the sons of Pahathmoab Elihoanai the son of Zerahiah, and with him 200 men of the sons of Zatu Shekoniah the son of Jahaziel, and with him 300 men of the sons of Adin. Ebed the son of Jonathan, and with him 50 men of the sons of Elam. Jeshaiah the son of Ataliah, and with him 70 men of the sons of Shephatiah. Zebadiah the son of Michal, and with him 80 men of the sons of Joab. Obadiah the son of Jehiel, and with him 218 men of the sons of Bani. Shelomoth the son of Josaphiah, and with him 460 Men of the sons of Babai. Zechariah the son of Babai, and with him 28 men of the sons of Azgad. Johanan the son of Hakatan, and with him 310 Men of the sons of Adonikam, who came later, their names being Eliphelet, Jeuel and Shemaiah and with them 60 men of the sons of Bigvi, Uthai and Zechur, and with them 70 men, ministers for the temple. I gathered them to the river that runs to Ahavah, and there we encamped three days as I reviewed the people and the priests, I found there none of the sons of Levi. Then I sent for Eleazar, Ariel, Shemaiah, Elnathan, Jareb, Elnathan, Nathan, Zechariah and Mushullam, leading men, and for Joiarib and Elnathan, who were men of insight, and sent them to Iddo, the leading man at the place of Cassaphia, telling them what to say to Iddo and his brethren, the temple servants at the place of Cassiphea, namely, to send us ministers for the house of our God. And by the good hand of our God upon us they brought us a man of discretion of the sons of Mahli, the son of Levi, son of Israel, namely Sherebiah, with his sons and kinsmen, 18 also Hashabiah and with him Jeshiah of the sons of Merari with his kinsmen and their sons, 20 besides 220 of the temple servants whom David and his officials had set apart to attend the Levites These were all mentioned by fasting and prayer for protection. Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river Ahava that we might humble ourselves before our God to seek from him a straight way for ourselves, our children and all our goods. For I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and horsemen to protect us against the enemy on our way. Since we had told the king, the hand of our God is for good upon all that seek him and the power of his wrath is against all that forsake him. So we fasted and besought our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty gifts for the temple. Then I set apart 12 of the leading priests, Shirabiah, Hashabiah, and 10 of their kinsmen with them. And I weighed out to them the silver and the gold and the vessels. The offering for the house of our God which the king and his counsellors and his lords and all Israel there present had offered. I weighed out into their hand six hundred and fifty talents of silver and silver vessels worth a hundred talents and a hundred talents of gold. 20 bowls of gold worth a thousand darics and two vessels of fine bright bronze as precious as gold. And I said to them, you are holy to the Lord and the vessels are holy. And the silver and the gold are a freewill offering to the Lord, the God of your fathers. Guard them and keep them until you weigh them before the chief priests and the Levites and the heads of fathers. Houses and Israel at Jerusalem within the chambers of the house of the Lord. So the priests and the Levites took over the weight of the silver and the gold and the vessels to bring them to Jerusalem, to the house of our God. The return to Jerusalem. Then we departed from the river ahavah on the 12th day of the first month to go up to Jerusalem. The hand of our God was upon us. And he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and from ambushes. By the way we came to Jerusalem and. And there we remained three days. On the fourth day, within the house of our God, the silver and the gold and the vessels were weighed into the hands of Meramoth the priest son of Uriah. And with him was Eleazar the son of Phinehas. And with them were the Levites, Jozabad the son of Jeshua, and Noadiah the son of Binnui. The whole was counted and weighed, and the weight of everything was recorded. At that time, those who had come from captivity, the returned exiles, offered burnt offerings to the God of Israel. 12 bulls for all Israel 96 rams, 77 lambs, and as a sin offering, 12 he goats all this was a burnt offering to the Lord. They also delivered the king's commissions to the king's satraps and to the governors of the province beyond the river, and they aided the people and the house of God. The Book of Zechariah chapter 7 hypocritical fasting condemned in the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev now the people of Bethel had sent Shahrazar and Regomelech and their men to entreat the favor of the Lord, and to ask the priests of the house of the Lord of Hosts and the prophets, should I mourn and fast in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years. Then the word of the Lord of Hosts came to me, say to all the people of the land and the priests, when you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these 70 years, was it for me that you fasted? And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves? When Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, with her cities round about her, and the south and the lowland were inhabited, were not these the words which the Lord proclaimed by the former prophets, punishment for rejecting God's commands? And the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying, Thus says the Lord of render true judgments, show kindness and mercy each to his brother do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart. But they refused to listen, and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear. They made their hearts like adamant, lest they should hear the law and the words which the Lord of Hosts had sent by his spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from the Lord of hosts as I called, and they would not hear. So they called, and I would not hear, says the LORD of Hosts. And I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations which they had not known. Thus the land they left was desolate, so that no one went back and forth, and the pleasant land was made desolate. Chapter 8 God's Promise to Zion and the word of the LORD of Hosts came to me, saying, thus says the Lord of I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath. Thus says the I will return to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain. Thus says the Lord of old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with a staff in hand for very age, and the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets. Thus says the Lord of if it is marvellous in the sight of the remnant of this people in these days, should it also be marvellous in my sight? Says the LORD of Hosts. Thus says the Lord of Behold, I will save my people from the east country and from the west country, and I will bring them to dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God in faithfulness and in righteousness. Thus says the LORD of Let your hands be strong. You who in these days have been hearing these words from the mouth of the prophets since the day that the foundation of the house of the Lord of Hosts was laid, that the temple might be built. For before those days there was no wage for man, or any wage for beast, neither was there any safety from the foe for him who went out or came in For I set every man against his fellow. But now I will not deal with the remnant of this people, as in the former days, says the LORD of Hosts, for there shall be a sowing of peace, the vine shall yield its fruit, and the ground shall give its increase, and the heavens shall give their due and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things. And as you have been a byword of cursing among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you, and you shall be a blessing. Fear not, but let your hands be strong, for thus says the Lord of as I planned to do evil to you when your fathers provoked me to wrath, and I did not relent, says the LORD of Hosts, so again I have planned in these days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Fear not, these are the things that you shall do, speak the truth to one another, render in your gates judgments that are true, and make for peace do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath. For all these things I hate, says the Lord, joyful fasting. And the word of the Lord of hosts came to me saying, thus says the Lord of the fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Judah, seasons of joy and gladness and cheerful feasts. Therefore love, truth and peace, many peoples will be drawn to Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of peoples shall yet come even the inhabitants of many cities. The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, let us go at once to entreat the favor of the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts. I am going. Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of In those days 10 men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you. The book of Proverbs 2012:15 the Hearing Ear and the seeing eye. The Lord has made them both. Love not sleep, lest you come to poverty. Open your eyes and you will have plenty of bread. It is bad, it is bad, says the buyer. But when he goes away, then he boasts there is gold and abundance of costly stones, but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel. Father, in heaven we give you praise. Thank you so much, God, you are good and you love us. And gosh, how easy is it for us, God, to be numb to your love, that you love us so well, you love us so consistently, you love us faithfully. And how easy is it for us to be indifferent to your love. Lord, help us to seek your love, to be aware of it, to be conscious of it, to notice it, to receive it. This day and every day, in Jesus name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Okay, so Ezra, kind of important for us to note that there are roughly 60 years between chapter six and chapter seven of the book of Ezra. So kind of, you know, roughly 57 years. 60 years, give or take. And now we are introduced to the prophet Ezra. Or, sorry, to the scribe Ezra. He's not. Well, I guess he's kind of a prophet too. You know, all these technical terms. He is a scribe, he's a priest. In fact, we get his pedigree. And he comes from Aaron, right? He's in the line of. He's a son of Aaron, the chief priest. You know, when I say son of, I mean we heard he is the Ezra son of Sariah, son of Azariah, all the way down to Eleazar son of Aaron, the chief priest. So this Aaron, he goes up and this is part of this next wave, right? The next wave of. People remember, there were three waves of departure from the Holy Land to Babylon. Now, there are three waves of return. That first wave was marked by Zerubbabel. Remember, we heard of all but him for the last couple days. This second wave is marked by Ezra. The third wave is going to be marked by Nehemiah, or kind of the marker, the person. There is that. But there's something so remarkable is that Ezra has incredible favor with King Artaxerxes, the king of Persia. It is remarkable. And we already heard some incredible stories about the decree of Darius and the decree of Cyrus earlier on, about how here are these foreign emperors, these foreign kings, essentially, who are saying, yes, I will give you all of these things so you can go back home to the temple and worship God. And it's remarkable. And what happens is, Ezra notes, all this happens because the hand of the Lord was upon me. It's not because I was so great. It's not because I was super skilled. It was because God's favor was there. And. And it just. It's worth noting whenever we have these blessings in our lives to be able to say God was present. And it's not just a coincidence. This is something that happened because God is good. So in verse 10 of chapter 7, there's this line, it says for Ezra, you know, it says, why was God's hand upon him? It says, for Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to do it, and to teach his statutes and ordinances in Israel. There's these three things that Ezra had dedicated his life towards, and he had set his heart to study the law of the Lord, which is what you're doing. And this is really great here. For the last 270 days, you've been listening to and studying in many ways, right? Letting God's word form your mind, form our vision, and penetrate our hearts. So he had set his heart to study the law of the Lord. That's first, number one, to study. Second, and to do wasn't just this kind of antiseptic kind of laboratory. This is. I'm studying this because it's good to know. He studied it in order to do it, in order for that to actually change his own life, to change his own heart. And that's remarkable. And thirdly, it says to go on and to teach his statutes and ordinances in Israel. So these third things, three things. Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord, to do it and to teach it. And that is just. There's something really, really remarkable about this where I think it's worth noting that's what we're doing. We're striving to understand the word of God so that we can live it and then whoever we teach it to, that might be to our children, it might be to all the people around us, might be, you know, at a religious ed class, or in my case, to the students here on campus or to all of us who are journeying through this Bible in here. It's just a remarkable gift. So here Artaxerxes has this letter, all these gifts. But one of the things that is really interesting, I thought, was that in chapter eight, it says, Ezra, speaking in the first person, says, I proclaimed a fast there at the river Ahava. Ahava means love. FYI in Hebrew, I proclaimed a fast there that we might humble ourselves before our God and to seek from him a straight way for ourselves, our children, and all our goods. And he says, why? Because or for. I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and horsemen to protect us since we had told the king, the hand of our God is for good upon all who seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all that forsake him. And so basically, he's like, we really talked up the fact that God has got our back. We don't need any extra help, and, oh, we better ask God then. And I think there's something that's really good about this because we're going to contrast this a little bit with Nehemiah. In Nehemiah, chapter 2, Nehemiah sees that the king actually does give them an armed escort from Babylon all the way back to Jerusalem to Israel. And he sees that as, yeah, it's God's favor. Yeah, God is providing an armed escort through Nehemiah, or, sorry, through the king for Nehemiah. And here is Ezra, who's, you know, ah, I was ashamed to ask the king for an armed escort because I'd already talked up and bragged up our God who would protect us because we're seeking his face. And there. There's something good about both of those things, because it wasn't like Ezra said. I was too ashamed to ask the king for help, and therefore I just relied on myself. He's like, no, I was ashamed to ask the king for help. So I relied upon God. And that. That's not bad. That's not a bad thing. Nehemiah, for his part, saying, no, I rely upon God to give me what I asked the king for. And so both of those are completely legitimate ways to walk in the Lord. The one way to not walk in the Lord is To be ashamed, to ask the king for help and also to not ask God for help. So in this case, both men, Ezra, and later on, Nehemiah will have asked God for help. God provided that safety for Ezra. And God provided. Provided safety for Nehemiah in the persons of the guards and the armed escort that he had given to him. So just kind of a unique thing. And they returned to Jerusalem, and we got Ezra all the way and the other. The priests that he had to recruit to go back to the temple. And we're going to get the last couple chapters of Ezra tomorrow, and Ezra is going to do something interesting tomorrow, but we'll get there then. Zechariah, the prophet Zechariah. Today, I want to just highlight a couple things. At the beginning of chapter seven, there's this thing called hypocritical fasting. So the people, they're back in Israel, right? They're in the Holy Land. And they're basically saying to Zechariah, okay, so we've been fasting this whole time here in Judah, in the land of Jerusalem. We've been fasting on the fifth month, in the seventh month. Can we keep that up? Or is that done now that you got y' all coming back? All the exiles are returning. Are we done with fasting in the fifth month? Since fifth month and seventh month. Now, it's interesting to note that God had only really declared one day of fasting, the day of atonement in Jewish life. Now there were four more days that were introduced because of the fall of Babylon and all the tragic things that had happened. But then these people, they picked up these two months in fifth month and seventh month of fasting, which is not a bad thing. I mean, obviously you think that, yeah, I'm going to commemorate these. These difficult times. I'm going to commemorate these difficult moments. That's a good thing to do. In fact, as Catholic Christians, we fast every single Friday. And there's a degree of penance that we do every single Friday to commemorate and remember the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. We also celebrate every single Sunday to commemorate his resurrection. And so there's something good about this. But what Zechariah points out is he says, okay, yeah, you fast and everything, that's fine. I mean, there's nothing wrong with this. But what happens is the rest of the time, you eat and drink like your lives are your own. Yeah, you give kind of God a little pittance, right? Little, small, little. Oh, God, we'll do this for you here. But the rest of your lives. You treat like he's not part of them. You treat like your food is yours, your drink is yours, your lives are yours. Instead of saying, no, my food, my drink, everything I eat, everything I drink, everything I do is for him. And this is one of the things that I want to highlight this because Zechariah is dialing in on something that is common to almost all of us. How many of us have made it a regular habit to say, yeah, I go to church on Sundays, but the rest of the week is mine, or maybe I give that tithe, I give that tenth of my income or my salary, whatever, to the Lord, but the rest of that is mine. As opposed to saying, God, the entire week is yours, God, my entire paycheck is yours. God, all my life is yours. It's a way of what fasting is meant to do, what that prayer is meant to do. It's meant to get us to the core of us, I mean, to say, where we realize that my entire life is God's. And so this little fasting I'm doing today, or this prayer I'm doing today, this offering I'm lifting up to the Lord right now, is a sign of the fact that my entire life belongs to Him. And Zechariah points out to the Jews of the day, and he points out to us right now that if we give God that fast, it's fine, it's good. But if we give him that fast, but then keep the rest of our lives as ours, then we're missing something. And God doesn't want us to miss that something. He wants us to become totally his. At the end of the book of Zechariah, or at least at the end of chapter eight of Zechariah, there's this prophecy that I think is just beautiful. And that prophecy is what's going to happen in those days. Ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew and say, let us go with you. For we have heard that God is with you. And that sense of like here, that's us. This is us who are not born Jewish, who are born Gentiles, who were brought into the covenant through the blood of Jesus Christ. That's us saying, let us go with you to the house of the Lord. As St. Paul will say, we've been grafted onto the tree. And I'm so grateful that God allows someone like us, who are not the Jewish people, not the people of God, to become his people through adoption by baptism. I'm so grateful. What a gift. You guys, I am praying for you. Please, please pray for me. What a day. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bl.