Episode Transcript  

One

The Best of the Jews 

Why did God wait so long after the fall of Adam and Eve to send the Savior? After the fall of Adam and Eve, twenty generations go by with humanity hell bent on self-destruction marked by pride, hatred, and bloodshed, resulting in a catastrophic flood and the division of the world into isolated nations that can’t even talk to one another. Then God calls Abraham, who had a son, Isaac. Isaac and Rebekah have Jacob. Jacob then had twelve sons through four different women. Not a good idea. Ten of those sons conspire to kill the youngest, Joseph, which ends with Joseph in Egypt. Genesis ends with all Twelve Tribes enslaved in Egypt for four hundred years. But we are all enslaved to self-destructive tendencies, and we won’t admit it.

Through Moses, God set Israel free. Joshua takes them into the Promised Land, and through the Book of Judges, they win and build the Promised Land. In 1000 BC, God promises to give David an Everlasting Kingdom. But Solomon, his son, the most intelligent man who ever lived, was addicted to Power, Greed, and Lust: seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines. And Solomon burned his own sons to the demon Molech. And so begins the self-destruction of Israel. 

His son Rehoboam causes a civil war in Israel. A house divided cannot stand. In 722 BC, the ten northern tribes of Israel were conquered by the Assyrians and lost forever, and the place where they lived became known as Samaria. In 586 BC, the two southern tribes conquered and exiled by the Babylonians (modern-day Iraq). The Jewish temple was destroyed, and the Ark of the Covenant lost forever. And the Kingdom of Israel ends. 

Two

70 years later (515 BC), the remaining two tribes of Jews returned from Exile, and they rebuild the Temple 

In 167 BC, a Syrian madman, Antiochus Epiphanes, conquered Israel and outlawed the Jewish religion. In 164 BC, the Jewish family of the Maccabees lead a guerrilla war to fight for their religious freedom, and they defeat the Syrians and start the Hasmonean Dynasty. They ruled what is left of Israel. But they eventually turn on one another through a lust for power by plotting, intrigues, murder, and assassinations. 

Finally, in 67 BC, the death of the last Queen of the Hasmoneans, Alexandra Salome, plunged Judea into a civil war between her two sons, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, vying for power.

Things were so out of control in Jerusalem that Rome intervened in 63 BC. The Roman General Pompey entered Jerusalem and the Temple and the Holy of Holies, and what did he find? NOTHING! It was empty, just like they were empty!

That is how the Old Testament ends, not with the Chosen People saving themselves and building a glorious kingdom, but with the Jews killing each other in a bloody civil war. Now the Kingdom is Lost. The Ark of the Covenant is lost. And the Temple is Empty.

They’ve ruined it all. They’ve hit rock bottom.

Three

Maybe the Gentiles fared better?

Rome stood as the pinnacle of human achievement, the most civilized and virtuous of the Gentile kingdoms. Yet beneath its gleaming marble and disciplined legions, chaos festered. Rome was at war, always at war. From without, it battled the Greeks, Parthians, and Carthage. From within, its own leaders tore it apart, consumed by relentless ambition. The Republic, once a beacon of law and order, became a stage for endless civil wars waged by generals hungry for power.

Pompey, fresh from his conquest of Jerusalem, turned his armies on Julius Caesar, his former ally. The two clashed in a brutal struggle, leaving Rome fractured. Victory was Caesar’s, but his triumph was short-lived. On the Ides of March, 44 BC, the blade of betrayal struck him down. His death unleashed another storm of ambition, as Mark Antony, Caesar’s trusted general, and Octavian, his named heir, plunged the Republic into yet another bloody war. For over a decade, Rome bled as Antony and Octavian tore through its armies, each seeking total domination. Mark Antony’s love for Cleopatra entangled him in Egypt’s intrigue. Trapped and defeated, Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide, leaving Octavian the last man standing. In 30 BC, he took the name Caesar Augustus, the first emperor of Rome.

But Augustus did not bring peace. The world was not healed. It was simply too tired to keep fighting. Exhaustion, not salvation, silenced the swords. Beneath this fragile calm lay a world rotted by lust for power, wealth, and pleasure. Humanity, Jew and Gentile alike, had plunged into a pit of intrigue, deceit, seduction, assassination, adultery, and greed. It was as if all of creation had hit rock bottom, unable to lift itself from its addiction to sin and self-destruction.

Four

Why Christ Waited So Long to Come

Why did God wait so long to send the Savior? Because humanity had to hit rock bottom, to see that life had become unmanageable and that we were powerless to save ourselves. So John the Baptist called everyone down to the lowest place on earth, the north shore of the Dead Sea, where the Jordan flows in, and urged them to admit to God the exact nature of their sins. And when humanity was finally at its lowest, Jesus came to the Jordan to take our sin and our death upon Himself and to give us His new life.

So the question is: Are you ready to admit you are powerless over the effects of sin, that your life becomes unmanageable on your own, and that you cannot save yourself from your self-destructive tendencies? And are you ready to turn your life and your will over to the Good Shepherd?

Five

Confession – the 2nd Baptism 

Surrendering our lives to Jesus once is not enough, because we continuously make a shipwreck of our lives. This is why the early Fathers of the Church called confession the second plank of salvation. So build the habit: daily meditation with a concrete resolution, a daily examination of conscience, and then, just as Our Lady has urged, go to confession once a month to receive the mercy and healing of Jesus.

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