Welcome to Day 1 of The Bible in a Year! Today, we start our year-long journey by reading Genesis 1-2 and Psalm 19. Fr. Mike Schmitz breaks down these readings to discover what the story of creation means for God's plan in your life. 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.
Chapter 1: What is the focus of the Bible in a Year podcast?
Hi, I'm 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.
Chapter 2: What Bible translation is being used?
This is day one, so let's get started. A couple of reminders is that we're using the Bible translation of the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition. That's the RSVCE. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
Chapter 3: How can I access the Bible reading plan?
And if you're interested in getting the Bible reading plan that we're using, you can download the Bible in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. That's ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year, all one word. The Bible reading plan is based off of
the great adventure Bible timeline and the Bible timeline created by Jeff Cavins covers the 14 narrative books of the old Testament and the new Testament. So that you get the entire story of salvation in a really creative way. We're also including these supplemental books or the non narrative books in along the way with those 14 narrative books.
So while you're hearing the story unfold and being unpacked and being proclaimed to you, you're also going to be getting like, here's where those other books, those non-narrative books fit in to the great story. You can subscribe at your podcast app, wherever you listen to podcasts.
And you can also sign up for our email list by texting the word Catholic Bible, all one word, Catholic Bible, to the number 33777. Today, we will be reading from Genesis chapter 1 and Genesis chapter 2, the first two chapters of Genesis, as well as Psalm 19. As we launch into Genesis 1 and 2, we're going to hear both stories of creation.
This is the early world period in the Great Adventure Bible timeline. And then Psalm 19, of course, is just this beautiful psalm of David on the creation of the world. Let's get started. Genesis chapter 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
The earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. And God said, let there be light. And there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day and the darkness he called night. There was evening and there was morning one day.
And God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters and let it separate waters from the waters. And God made the firmament and separated the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so. And God called the firmament heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day. And God said, And God saw that it was good.
And God said, And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning, a third day.
And God said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from the night and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years and let them be lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth. And it was so. And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also.
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Chapter 4: What is the significance of Genesis chapters 1 and 2?
And God said, Then God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. And God blessed them.
And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. And God said, behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.
And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps upon the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food. And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning, a sixth day.
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the hosts of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all his work which he had done in creation. Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground.
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and they were divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is Pishon. It is the one which flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good. Bellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon. It is the one which flows around the whole land of Cush.
And the name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may eat freely of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.
For in the day that you eat of it, you shall die. Then the Lord God said, it is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper fit for him. So out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.
The man gave names to all the cattle and to all the birds of the air and to every beast of the field. But for the man, there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man. And while he slept, took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man, he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
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Chapter 5: What does Psalm 19 reveal about creation?
But our original, God's original intention for us, he made us for labor. He also made us for leisure. On the seventh day, God rested and he commands us ultimately to rest like that for labor, for leisure and for love. As God makes it very clear in Genesis chapter two, after creating Adam.
One of the things we know is that Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 are two different accounts of the same event, right? The gods creating the universe and human beings. Genesis chapter 1 is like this macro event, and Genesis chapter 2 is this micro event, like zooming in on the first man and the first woman. One of the things we recognize also, the macro event in Genesis chapter 1,
is that it doesn't have to be taken literally or historically and literally. It did happen, but it is created and told in such a way that it is so deeply and profoundly poetic and revealing. So for example, we have what? We have the days of creation, six days of creation. And we are not meant to take it literally. And we know this. Why? Because on day one, God says, let there be light.
And he separated the light from the darkness and the light he called day and the darkness he called night. But on day four, God finally makes the sun and the stars and the moon. And so we realize that, wait a second. There wouldn't be day and night unless there was sun and stars and moon, unless there was a purpose for how the sacred author laid this out.
So the first three days, there's light and darkness. Second days, there's water and sky. The third day, there is the separation between the water and land. Well, then on day four, you have the lights of the dome of the sky. You have the sun and stars and moon. On day five, you have the flying things and things in the sea. And day six, you have all the things on the land, including human beings.
What the author is pointing out is, okay, day one is light. And day three is what rules the light and darkness. Day two is the water and the sky. And day five is what rules the water and the sky, the flying things and the swimming things. Day three is what's on land, is the lands made. And day six is what rules the land.
It's not only the wild beasts, but the men, the humanity, male and female that has dominion has been given dominion over all that's on the land. And so you see that this is not meant to be taken literally, but made to be taken truthfully and poetically. As I said, the macro perspective of Genesis 1 also meets the micro perspective of Genesis 2.
That God made human beings for labor, for leisure, and then in Genesis 2 we see for love. As God says, it's not good for the man to be alone. And just recognizing how deeply profound this is. The term helpmate that God uses is the term ezer k'negdo.
And it does not mean, it does not mean that the woman is lower, just a helpmate, you know, in that sense of give me a sandwich, kind of that joke that's floating around there. But it means something more profound.
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