Introduction to the Return (with Jeff Cavins) - 2026

Fr. Mike Schmitz (0:04)

Hi, my name is Fr. 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. Speaking of The Great Adventure Bible Timeline, once again, we are blessed as we go into the next time period of The Great Adventure Bible Timeline and have the creator of The Great Adventure Bible Timeline, Jeff Cavins, with us once again. Gosh, we're excited he was just with us, maybe, gosh, a little over a week ago, as we were introduced to Matthew, the Gospel of Matthew. And here we are, new time period. We've left behind the exile and all the prophets, and now heading into this next time period, which is the returns. Jeff, thank you once again for joining us and helping us on these steps forward.

Jeff Cavins (0:53)

Well, it's good to be with you again, and I'm excited to always go from exile to the return, brighter days ahead.

And that's the yellow period on the Bible timeline chart. And it is, it's a new beginning, and I'm looking forward to going through it with you.

Fr. Mike Schmitz (1:08)

Yeah, that's so good. I mean, I think, I don't know how much people have paid attention to the colors of the Bible timeline. Hopefully, they have because it's one of those mnemonic devices that you had come up with that just helps the baby blues in that sense, are singing the blues in exile. And just, it's been so long.

It was interesting for me, at least, to be able to journey according to the Bible timeline, right? And in that chronological journey of here's the stories of the kings and chronicles that led into exile. And then to be able to hear the prophets talking about, yes, here's what's coming. So to know the story and then to hear the prophets' voices in the context of the story was just, it was fascinating for me. But to realize the story is not over, right? Even though you have Jeremiah and those who were left behind over in Egypt and they're gonna die there. And you have the other Jews who were brought up to Babylon and they're not gonna be left. They're not gonna be abandoned. They're not exiled forever, but there is the next step and that's our step today. So I can't wait for this introduction.

Jeff Cavins (2:07)

Yeah. Well, you know, when you get to the period of the return, it is brighter days ahead and it has been rough, hasn't it? You know, we went into exile and 70 years in Babylon. And during that period, a lot of things really developed. They didn't have the temple. And so this is really the rise of the synagogue during this time period. It's also the rise of the party of the Pharisees who are really the teachers. And the kitchen table really becomes the place where sacrifice is, is realized in a deeper way because they don't have the temple. So they have all of the kosher rules that are starting to develop in Judaism during that time, which we hear about when Jesus comes and dwells among us.

And so when they leave exile, it should remind us of something. And that is coming out of Egypt because this whole pattern of exile and return, exile and return is really, really important. We see it in the Exodus, we see it in the Book of Judges, we see it here.

We're also going to see it in the New Testament because Jesus in Luke is going to, he is going to announce the great return from exile. And the story that he uses to really illustrate it is Luke 15, which is the Prodigal Son. And so not only is this a pattern in the Old Testament, it is a pattern in our own lives as well. And there's so much that we can learn, that we can learn from it. So it's a very exciting time period.

Fr. Mike Schmitz (3:47)

That is. And I really appreciate the fact that you highlighted, because I think for probably a lot of people who have been journeying with us through The Bible in a Year, one of the things that is a question is often, what is the role of the synagogue versus the role of the temple? And how did those kosher laws that could, as you mentioned, that were so written in stone, in some ways, in the Old Testament, earlier on in this, how did they rise to such prominence where it doesn't seem like it's much of a big deal, or there's not in the rest of the story. We have these kings and others who were faithful or unfaithful, but it doesn't necessarily mention too often the dietary laws. Often times, it would mention who they were worshiping.